LAYING DOWN THE GAUNTLET
Davidson vows to f ight independence every step of the way... and then take power in Holyrood
RUTH Davidson threw down the gauntlet to Nicola Sturgeon, promising to fight her ‘every step of the way’ to prevent independence – and then to take her job.
In a fiery speech to conference in Glasgow yesterday, the Scots Tory leader insisted her party was a government in waiting.
She accused the SNP of ‘failing Scotland’ and vowed to stop it forcing the country down a new ‘constitutional cul-de-sac’ with another protracted referendum battle.
Last May, she successfully set her sights on replacing Labour as the ‘strong opposition’ to the SNP at Holyrood.
Now it is clear she has upped her ambitions and plans to become First Minister of a Scotland which remains part of the UK in 2021.
To the loudest applause of the conference, Miss Davidson said: ‘Scotland said No to independence. Stop trying to bounce us into another referendum.
‘And I can promise you this. This party – the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party – will never waver in our determination to stand up for the decision we made as a country. We will fight you every step of the way.’
On her First Ministerial ambitions, she added: ‘We can be that better government. We must be that better government. We will be that better government.’
Miss Davidson contrasted her upbeat party with the ‘unalloyed negativity’ and ‘chaos’ of Scottish Labour, which held its conference in Perth the previous week.
In less than a fortnight the SNP will meet in Aberdeen, amid growing speculation that Miss Sturgeon could demand the power to hold another referendum – despite previously saying the 2014 poll was a ‘once in a generation opportunity’.
But Miss Davidson insisted Miss Sturgeon should get back to the day job of running the country, adding: ‘The SNP Government is failing Scotland.’
She said Scots now ‘demand a politics that no longer obsesses about the colour of a flag’.
She added: ‘And we must show them – that this party, the Conservative Party, is the one that will stand up for them. That we are a government in waiting.
‘I’ll be honest with you, conference – we’re not there yet. Not by a long shot. But by representing them, by serving them, we will reach that goal.
‘We’re not in this for us. We’re not a club. We’re a party that aspires to govern for all of Scotland. Because, after ten years in office, this SNP Government has simply squandered the opportunity it has had to transform our country.’
Miss Davidson announced new plans including:
An independent advisory board on the NHS and social care;
A reversal of SNP cuts to colleges which has cost 150,000 places;
And more powers for councils to boost local economies.
Party chiefs said more details on those proposals will be spelled out in the coming weeks.
Miss Davidson will hope to make similar strides in May’s local elections as in the one for Holyrood last year, which delivered the Scottish Tories’ best result.
And, homing in on the SNP’s failures in education, she aimed a dig at the former First Minister’s boasts about free tuition, which saw him unveil a stone with one of his own quotes at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
Miss Davidson said: ‘Let’s never forget conference, that this SNP Government is the same government which slashed 150,000 college places so Alex Salmond could enjoy a photo-op with a rock. We will reverse those cuts.’
Miss Davidson also hit back at the First Minister over Brexit.
She was one of the strongest campaigners for staying in the EU ahead of last June’s referendum, and the warnings she made then have been repeatedly thrown back in her face by the SNP.
In a dig at the First Minister’s negativity, Miss Davidson said: ‘I want us to make a success of Brexit. She wants Britain to fail.’
She praised Theresa May for being ‘superb and steadfast’.
Mrs May had promised to stand up for a ‘true and enduring’ Union, at the conference on Friday, and attacked the SNP’s ‘obsession’ with tearing Britain apart.
Scottish Secretary David Mundell said Miss Sturgeon’s warning, that a second independence referendum was ‘highly likely’ filled him with ‘dismay’.
‘It betrayed the Nationalists’ complete lack of respect for any views but their own,’ he said. ‘That the four in ten Scots who voted Leave are irrelevant.’
Both Labour and the SNP hit back at Miss Davidson last night.
Kezia Dugdale, Scottish Labour leader, said: ‘It is Ruth Davidson’s party pressing ahead with a hard Brexit that will harm our economy and hurt hard-working families, while supporting tax cuts for the richest in society.
‘And it is Ruth Davidson’s Tories who have put our Union at risk once again.’
Finance Secretary Derek Mackay said: ‘Ruth Davidson ignores and forgets that Scotland voted by a decisive 24-point margin to remain in the EU. Yet she is determined to see Scotland taken out of the EU against our will.
‘Ruth Davidson doesn’t even think we should be offered a choice, never mind make it.’
‘Stop trying to bounce us into a referendum’ ‘We are a government in waiting’’