Davidson: I won’t split Scottish Tories from UK party even if Boris is PM

Ruth Davidson has rejected suggestions that the Scottish Tories could break away from the UK Conservative party.

Writing in the Sunday Times, former Tory chairman Peter Duncan suggested that, if Boris Johnson is to become the next prime minister, it could create an existential crisis for the party north of the Border.

He claimed that, if Mr Johnson wins the party’s leadership election, it could open up a “chasm of epic proportions”.

Speaking on the BBC’S Marr programme, Ms Davidson said she did not back a proposal put forward in 2011 by Murdo Fraser that the party could break away from the UK party.

“It’s within the gift of the party, but it’s nothing that

I’ve ever supported,” said Ms Davidson. “Indeed, my entire leadership pitch back in 2011 was predicated on the idea that we wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom party, but with the autonomy for candidate selection, policy, financing and all of these other things that come under my purview.

“There was a suggestion from one of the other candidates in that leadership election that a breakaway would be something that they would look at, along the kind of German CDU/ CSU model, but that is not something I have ever supported, I don’t support and I wouldn’t support in the future.”

Asked whether it would be right for Westminster to legally block another Scottish independence referendum, she said Nicola Sturgeon had failed to ask for the powers to be granted to Holyrood to hold one. She said a second referendum may take place “in 50 or 100 years” but shouldn’t be held now.

In 2016, Ms Davidson said that the UK government should not stand in the way of a second independence referendum in Scotland.

“We know from the devolved settlement that issues of the constitution are reserved to Westminster, that’s plainly a fact,” she said.

“After the last independence referendum, we had a big, broad discussion about what powers should lie where, and the SNP didn’t even ask for the powers to be devolved.

“So this is a new wheeze from Nicola Sturgeon that comes up every year with a different reason for what she wants to do.”

A spokeswoman for the SNP said: “Ruth Davidson is guilty of the most appalling double standards, having previously said that the UK government ‘shouldn’t block’ an independence referendum.

“Denying a No vote was based on the promise of staying in the EU. Just like David Mundell, she is attempting to rewrite history.

“Ms Davidson is running scared of an independence referendum – but she knows her party cannot indefinitely stand in the way of democracy.

“The hypocrisy of the Tories in Scotland hasn’t been lost on voters, as we see in recent polls. It’s clearer than ever that the Tories are ready to sell-out Scotland.”