SNP warns Davidson will use ‘her ermine boots to give us a kicking’

Boris Johnson is expected to formally announce Ruth Davidson’s elevation to the House of Lords this week, inviting widespread criticism from Scottish rivals.

The prime minister is believed to have included the Edinburgh MSP alongside a number of other party figures on his long-awaited honours list, which is likely to be published this week.

The reports come in a week when Ms Davidson has been arguing the unionist camp should have been far more aggressive after the 2014 referendum.

“Mistakes have been made, and one of those was not sticking the boot in after the 2014 referendum,” she wrote in a Sunday newspaper.

SNP constitution spokesman Pete Wishart was in no doubt that Ms Davidson would be using “her ermine boots” to kick the SNP if she was handed a peerage.

He said: “No doubt she’ll be using her ermine boots to try to give us a kicking.

“That’s obviously been a role carved out for her, this is why Boris Johnson is keen to have her back. But I think she’ll find it quite difficult to engage people as a baroness.

“She’ll find that the people of Scotland are increasingly looking at this absurd institution and deciding that it’s got no place whatsoever in our democratic legislature.”

Ms Davidson is to stand down at the 2021 Holyrood election but, if she becomes a peer, she could depart from the Scottish Parliament earlier and spark a by-election — or she could hold a dual role until next spring.

Ms Davidson stepped down from her leadership role with the Scottish Tories last year to spend more time with son Finn.