FORGET WESTMINSTER, I’LL LEAD A TORY SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT VOWS RUTH
RUTH Davidson is set to ‘lay down the challenge’ to the SNP as she prepares to build on the General Election result in Scotland in her bid to become First Minister.
The Scottish Conservative leader has been hailed as the ‘heroine’ of her party after helping to secure Theresa May’s place in Downing Street with the Tories winning 13 seats north of the Border.
But despite calls from fans including former chancellor George Osborne for her to be given a Cabinet position, Miss Davidson said her goal is to lead a Tory Scottish Government.
This week she will begin a threeweek campaign pushing domestic issues such as education, health and the economy as she challenges the SNP to start seriously looking at its policies and to abandon its push to break up Britain.
Miss Davidson has previously said that she is ‘absolutely determined’ to replace Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister and by the time of the next Holyrood election in 2021 she will be a ‘damn serious’ contender. Going into the General Election, she said she would be building on the momentum of the Conservatives’ unprecedented success at the Holyrood elections last year which saw the party oust Labour as the main opposition.
Now she is hoping to use last week’s ‘historic’ result to present her party as a ‘government in waiting’. A Tory source said: ‘We are keen to get the focus back on the day job – leaving aside Brexit, Indyref and the games of the election and instead focus on education, NHS and the economy.’
An SNP spokesman said: ‘For the Tories to accuse others of not focussing on our economy and public services is not just hypocritical, it is frankly contemptible.’