Unity and hard work

If the Conservatives gathered in Manchester for their annual conference were feeling somewhat down after the general election then Ruth Davidson yesterday had the antidote. She was the first leader of the Scottish Tories able to stand before the party faithful with a good story to tell. For years, the Conservatives were told they had been eradicated in Scotland. Their opponents joked that there were more nesting ospreys north of the border than elected Tories. But at the last election, even as the party was losing its overall UK parliamentary majority, the tables were being turned in Scotland. The Tories went from one MP to 13.

Partly this was a consequence of the erosion of support for the SNP in a country that had voted against independence. But as Miss Davidson said, the Tory success was not a flash in the pan. It was the result of years of work by the Tories to sell their message in what had become an almost toxic political environment not unlike the one that Labour is trying to create in England now.

Conservatives who fear for the country should Jeremy Corbyn ever get into power need to recognise their own responsibilities to take the fight to Labour. In Scotland, the SNP looked unassailable yet just lost 40 per cent of its seats. Labour, a party whose MPS did not want Mr Corbyn as their leader, is as vulnerable to the challenge of Tory ideas, values and an unapologetic belief in country, duty, family and individual freedom. As Miss Davidson rightly observed, just as the Nationalists came crashing down, so the Labour bubble can be burst as well. But it will take unity and hard work. The Conservatives need to demonstrate a commitment to both this week.