Davidson opens the door for future shot at party leadership – but ‘has a job to do first’
RUTH DAVIDSON yesterday said a Scot could “absolutely” become Tory leader as she ruled out trying for the post “right now” but left open the possibility in the longer term.
The Scottish Conservative leader, right, said that “without a doubt” a Scot could take the helm of the UK party, amid a growing clamour for her to move to Westminster in preparation for a leadership bid.
She said she had a job to do in Scotland “at the moment” and she planned to fight Nicola Sturgeon to become First Minister in the May 2021 Holyrood election. However, she refused to rule out standing for Westminster after that date. Ms Davidson also used two high-profile television interviews to pour scorn on attempts by a group led by Grant Shapps to push out Theresa May, saying it was “flattering” to describe it as a coup.
She said Mrs May was “the best Prime Minister we’ve got” and she should hold Boris Johnson to his word that he will support every part of her Brexit blueprint, outlined in her Florence speech.
Her intervention came as Ms Sturgeon used the first day of the SNP conference in Glasgow to raise the prospect of trying again for a second independence referendum before Brexit in March 2019.
Mrs May last week claimed she had saved the Union after her disastrous decision to call a snap general election led to the SNP losing 21 MPS, including Alex Salmond and Angus Robertson, with the Scottish Tories enjoying their best performance in decades.
Ms Sturgeon accused the Prime Minister of “clutching at straws” and John Swinney, the SNP Deputy First Minister, told delegates in his opening speech that: “We rededicate ourselves to independence – the best possible future for Scotland.” A recent poll showed Ms Davidson is Tory members’ second favourite candidate to succeed Mrs May if she departs following her disastrous conference speech, despite not even being an MP.
However, questions have previously been raised about having a Scottish leader because many of the policy areas they would oversee, such as health and education, are devolved to Holyrood. Asked on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC whether a Scot could lead the Conservative Party, Ms Davidson said: “Absolutely, without a doubt. Michael Gove even tried.”
But she added: “I’ve got a job at the moment. I’m not looking past 2021.
“I’m trying to build a party that was third, in some cases fourth, when I became leader to build it up to be a credible government of Scotland.”
At the general election in June, Theresa May added two million votes to the Tory tally from two years earlier as the Conservatives won the support of a bigger proportion of the electorate than at any time since the 1980s. But she lost 13 seats and her Parliamentary majority is weakened as a consequence. By contrast, Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party lost 21 MPS and half a million votes. She no longer has a majority at Holyrood and her approval ratings have plummeted in the polls. Yet in the topsy-turvy world of Brexit politics she is considered to be in a strong position.
The SNP conference taking place in Glasgow should by rights be an even gloomier affair than the Conservative gathering in Manchester last week. Miss Sturgeon is facing a resurgent Conservative party under its redoubtable leader Ruth Davidson and is being outflanked on the Left by Labour, who could recapture many seats lost in 2015. On top of that, hopes of another independence referendum are receding as Scots’ support for separatism dips further in the face of Brexit. Indeed, this conference will be marked out from previous SNP rallies for not addressing the independence question at all.
But, without the comfort blanket of separatism to cling to, the SNP has to make some key strategic decisions. Judging by the agenda for the conference – and the instinctive political propensities of the leadership – it appears to have opted to shift Leftwards. Items for debate include a ban on under-18s serving in the Armed Forces, complaints about funding for the monarchy, higher taxes and a ban on nuclear weapons. These seem intended to match Jeremy Corbyn’s radicalism but may fail to find favour with traditionalist working class voters in Scotland.
A further move left by the SNP can only be good news for the Scottish Tories, who won 13 seats at the general election. Miss Davidson has shown the electoral benefits that can accrue from articulating an uncompromisingly Tory message even when there is great pressure to match the policies of her opponents. As Parliament resumes this week, Mrs May needs to avoid falling into the trap of trying to combat the Labour threat by partially emulating its anti-market approach. Meanwhile, as Sir John Major said, the Conservatives need to rally behind their leader in this hour of difficulty for the party and the country. The next few months will be critical to the fortunes of both.