Alan COCHRANE
Ruth Davidson’s expected announcement today that she’s resigning as leader of the Scottish Tories is a bitter blow not only to politics north of the border but to the whole of Britain.
She will insist that her decision was taken for family and not political reasons and that her announcement was planned before Boris Johnson said he was suspending parliament. But there will be few who do not believe that she has lost her enthusiasm for politics, was finding it hard to cope with a career and motherhood – she has a 10-month-old son – and that the new Prime Minister’s determination to pursue a no-deal Brexit was anathema to her.
However, her departure is, above all, a threat to the Unionist cause because if she can’t be persuaded to remain in the front rank of politics, her departure from the forefront of the Tories’ ranks would significantly weaken the fight against the SNP’S challenge to break up Britain.
Ruth Davidson wasn’t just a fresh face and brand new talent, she broke the mould in every sense of that hackneyed expression.
Not for her, long years carving a careful path for herself through the mainly middle class structures of an increasingly moribund Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party. Instead, she used a forceful personality and first class speaking skills – often larded with distinctly
un-conservative expressions – to rush upwards and onwards by spelling out the absolute truth about who she was – in phrases that now seem almost like clichés – a lesbian, former TA soldier, EX-BBC trainee producer, educated at a Fife comprehensive and one half of a same-sex marriage.
But thanks to backing from the then prime minister, David Cameron, and David Mundell, then the only Scottish Tory MP, who both saw her as something refreshingly different and miles away from the traditional Conservative image, she stormed to victory in the Scottish leadership contest nine years ago.
Ironically, she did this by wooing the party’s long-term members by insisting that she wouldn’t alter their name or break away from the UK Conservatives, changes that were being promised by the contest’s favourite, Murdo Fraser.
As leader, she spoke the language of everyday voters – championing their worries and fears about declining school standards and hospital waiting times.
But, above all, she refused to be patronised by Alex Salmond, the then SNP leader and a vastly experienced parliamentary debater.
She was not overawed, either, by Labour big beasts like Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling in the 2014 independence referendum and earned her spurs by playing a starring role – especially with young people – in that victory.
However, she really shone in the 2016 Scottish election when she denounced Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for another referendum, picking up seats all over Scotland and putting her party into second place at Holyrood.
The following year the same tactics saw her increase the number of MPS from one to 13 in the Commons.
And there is no doubt that, had it not been for the EU referendum result, in which most Scots voted for Remain, she stood a chance of emerging from the 2021 Holyrood election as leader of the biggest party and, possibly, First Minister.
That dream all but died during the three years of acrimonious Commons debates and no matter what she says in her announcement today there will be little doubt in the minds of Davidson-watchers that Boris Johnson’s elevation to Downing Street and his espousal of a no-deal Brexit were killer blows for the aspirations of this talented lady.