AT LAST, THE MOMENT OF RUTH

Jubilant Davidson hails surge by Tories to 31 seats Demand for Sturgeon to rule out new referendum Pledge to focus on the ‘true priorities’ of voters

RUTH Davidson yesterday hailed the remarkable electoral surge that saw the Scottish Conservatives storm into second place for denying the SNP an outright parliamentary majority.

Miss Davidson said the loss of Nicola Sturgeon’s Holyrood majority had ‘cut the legs from under her’.

There is now ‘no mandate, no majority, no cause’ to support another vote on independence, the Scottish Tory leader said.

She insisted the country must move on, rather than looking towards another ‘divisive referendum’.

Defying the odds to be elected as Edinburgh Central MSP, Miss Davidson found it difficult to hide her winning grin after her party gained an extra 16 seats at Holyrood – up from 15 – to become the largest opposition party.

Although conceding that voters had kept the Nationalists in power, she insisted they had demanded change – including putting the independence debate to one side – and Miss Sturgeon must listen.

‘In terms of the mandate for another independence referendum, I think it is shredded,’ Miss Davidson said.

‘I think that when you have the former deputy leader of the Scottish National Party, Jim Sillars, saying it is not there in black in white in the manifesto, there is no mandate.

‘You then have that double whammy of not getting a majority and your current deputy leader Stewart Hosie has to go on the television and say that you do not have a mandate to pass everything that’s in your manifesto anyway.

‘I’m sorry but the First Minister can no longer pretend she can wake up one morning and see an opinion poll that she likes and call a snap referendum.

‘I never believed that at the time and she certainly had the legs cut away from under her in trying to pretend that is the case now.’

Miss Davidson led a strong campaign, branding her party as the only one fighting to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom.

She spoke passionately about this yesterday as she addressed party members and the Press at the Apex Hotel in Edinburgh – urging the First Minister to rule out the possibility of another referendum.

Speaking about voters, she said: ‘They are demanding a government that considers the wishes of all of Scotland, not just the mood of its own party. And I believe they want a government that does not take Scotland back to yet more division over independence.

‘As I said during the election campaign, the SNP manifesto does not give Nicola Sturgeon a mandate for a second independence referendum.

‘Now that she has failed to win a majority, whatever claims the SNP were pursuing with regard to constitutional brinkmanship over the next five years have now been utterly shredded.

‘There is no mandate, no majority, no cause – the SNP must now let Scotland move on. And, as she starts her new term of office, I hope Nicola Sturgeon makes it clear she will now focus entirely on what she was elected to do, leading a devolved administration. I urge her to start her new parliament by ruling out another referendum.’

Miss Davidson said that away from the ‘uncertainty’ of a second vote on independence, the new parliament can finally look to deliver on priorities such as securing more funding for colleges, better support for those with mental illnesses and forcing change to the ‘wrongheaded Named Person law’.

She added: ‘Freed from that uncertainty, I believe our new parliament can finally start to deliver on the country’s real priorities: better schools, a sustainable NHS and a growing economy. As the main opposition party, I commit my party today to playing a full and constructive role in that debate.’

Despite her success, Miss Davidson said she was aware many thousands of those who voted for her party were not ‘dyed-in-the-wool Conservatives’, adding: ‘They simply wanted somebody, anybody, to do a job for them in parliament of holding the SNP to account.’ She vowed to work for them and to ‘put your concerns first – not those of my party’.

‘As a minority government I believe the SNP will be forced to listen, to learn and to improve,’ Miss Davidson said. ‘We went into this election promising to keep the SNP in check. Last night, we made good on that promise by beating the SNP in seats across Scotland.

‘By winning seats on the regional list we have stopped the SNP from returning that majority.’

She also spoke of her joy as the results of the election were declared, with her party winning many more seats than expected.

Three-quarters of the new Conservative MSPs have never served as politicians, but Miss Davidson said she hoped this would raise the level of debate within the parliament and ‘help pressure the SNP’.

‘As a leader, you are not allowed to have favourites, but I think as someone who has just left the Glasgow region, seeing us get a second list in Glasgow and seeing somebody of the character and work ethic of Annie Wells coming in was a particular highlight for me,’ she said. ‘There are so many people that I think will make a huge and positive contribution to the parliament.’

Although the SNP does not have a majority, Miss Davidson acknowledged it was very close to having one. She said her party would be looking to get members on to Holyrood committees and making sure the Tory voice was heard this way.

When asked if she thought Labour could turn around its disappointing election performance, she said: ‘I believe in politics the wheel always turns.

‘I don’t believe anything in Scotland is permanent – if I did I would have believed people when I stood in the Apex Hotel in the Grassmarket four-and-a-half years ago that told me that becoming leader of the Scottish Conservatives would be akin to resuscitating a corpse.’

Tory sources have put their success down to reaching out beyond their traditional support and securing a ‘coalition of voters’. Miss Davidson’s principled opposition to the SNP’s ‘state snoopers’ and her promise not to raise taxes while, at the same time, not starving public services of cash, were also popular.

When Kezia Dugdale flip-flopped on the Union, saying it was ‘not inconceivable’ she could back independence to stay in the EU, before backtracking, Miss Davidson was able to position herself as the strongest defender of the Union.

‘Mandate for another referendum is shredded’