Davidson’s failure to axe bigoted pair may haunt her

Ruth Davidson heads to Manchester today hoping to cement her status as a Tory conference darling.

Though, as ever with the 2017 Conservative Party, it’s a whole lot more complicated than it appears.

Davidson is one of the highest profile Tories who are still Remainers at heart. That alone places her at odds with the faithful.

But the fact remains that without Davidson there would be no Tory Government.

The delivery of 13 Scottish MPs has shored up Theresa May’s shaky majority and, for that reason, when Davidson speaks, Tories from across the UK listen.

She’s right to say that the UK is too London-centric. And it makes pure political sense that Scotland and the North see more tangible benefits from public spending.

While Davidson again seeks to dazzle on the UK stage, there is a growing sense that her own house is not quite in order.

Nothing exemplifies this better than the ongoing scab which is the conduct of two Conservative councillors caught tweeting bigoted material. Davidson first defended a decision to retain both, insisting they deserved a second chance.

But, on Friday, it emerged that one, Robert Davies, has now had hi s memb er s h i p terminated.

That’s at odds with the prev ious l ine that apologies had been accepted, t raining offered, time to move on.

Last week, the Sunday Mail revealed the other, Alastair Majury, has not at tended a Sti rl ing Council meeting since the scandal broke. As a pro-Remain voice at the heart of the Conservative Party, and one with plenty of clout internally, Davidson is an increasingly important figure on the British political landscape.

She could act as an effective brake on the likes of Boris Johnson, who seems to be continually struggling under the weight of his own delusion.

But if the situation in Stirling is indicative of how she would run the country then she’s in trouble.

This was an extremely easy problem to solve. Both councillors should have been expelled from the party. It’s not as if they would be any great loss.

The fact she is still trying to cope with the fallout months later does not reflect well on Davidson.

In politics, issues which appear to be small- time can spiral out of control, destroying careers in their wake.

While Davidson again seeks to dazzle, there is a growing sense her own house is not quite in order