Raised in Newton Mearns, Carlaw worked as a car salesman after education at The Glasgow Academy.

He resigned the leadership in July 2020, stating he was not the person best placed to lead the party into the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.

Carlaw was raised in Newton Mearns and privately educated at The Glasgow Academy.

He was the Conservative candidate in the 1982 Queen's Park by-election, and in the 1983 general election in Glasgow Pollok.

He sat on the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations Committee of the Scottish Parliament until mid-2018.

[7] In 2011, Carlaw stood as a candidate in the leadership election brought on by Annabel Goldie's resignation.

[12] In February 2017, Carlaw was appointed Deputy Convener of the Cross Party Group on End-of-life Choices.

[11] He was the incumbent when Johnson called the 2019 general election, in which the party lost seven of their 13 seats from 2017.

He received support from Ruth Davidson,[18] Murdo Fraser,[19] Adam Tomkins,[20] Liz Smith,[21] Annie Wells and Jamie Greene.

[25] He initially supported the position of Boris Johnson to stick by Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings after alleged lockdown breaches but withdrew his support following criticism from leading figures in the Scottish party.

[30] In December 2022, Carlaw was found to have breached the MSP code of conduct by not declaring a paid trip to Israel that was funded by the Israeli Embassy.