Davidson: ‘I don’t want to be PM... I value my mental health and relationship too much’

RUTH DAVIDSON has said that she never wants to be Prime Minister because she “values her mental health too much”.

In a revealing interview with The Sunday Times, the Scottish Tory leader told for the first time of her struggles with self harm as a teenager, which has left her with scars on her arms.

She told the paper that she suffered suicidal thoughts and depression in her youth and described them as a “smothering black blanket” over her head.

Addressing any potential leadership bid, Ms Davidson, 39, said: “You have to want it and I don’t want to be Prime Minister. I value my relationship and mental health too much for it. I will not be a candidate.”

Speaking last week, she disclosed that if her unborn baby is a girl she will be called Fionnuala, as the Scottish Tory leader described for the first time the ordeal of IVF treatment.

She is due to give birth next month, shortly after the party conference in Birmingham.

Ms Davidson, who announced she was expecting a baby with partner Jen Wilson earlier this year, described her pregnancy as “invasive, joyous, mortifying, fearful and hopeful”.

And it seems motherhood may help shape her future in politics. She told The Sunday Times that she was not considering peerage nor moving to England. “On a human level, the idea that I would have a child in Edinburgh and then immediately go down to London four days a week and leave it up here is offensive; actually offensive to me.”

The paper is serialising Ms Davidson’s autobiography, which addresses her history of depression and alcohol abuse, it claims.

She recalled being 17 and at university when a boy from her village killed himself, sending her into a “tailspin”.

Ms Davidson told The Sunday Times: “I started hurting myself, punching walls, cutting my stomach and arms, drinking far too much and becoming belligerent and angry.”

At 18, she says she was diagnosed with clinical depression but the medication led to suicidal thoughts.

Gripped by the mental illness, she said she lived for a term “nocturnally”, because she was afraid to sleep due to “dark, terrible dreams”.

Having fought through it with exercise and moderating her drinking, she overcame her demons, but lives in fear of slipping back into the fragile state.

In a job that is 100mph, she told The Sunday Times, she still has periods of heightened anxiety, but uses tried and tested methods to keep her head above water. The manner in which she has handled her pregnancy has won widespread acclaim, as she became the first woman in the UK to take maternity leave while leading a political party.

She said she hoped the positive reaction that greeted her pregnancy will help others in future.

In the book, she said: “There is also a particular challenge in trying discreetly to sort out appointments and treatments while keeping up the pace of political leadership, so no one suspects anything. It leads to some interesting situations, such as having to stab yourself with hormone injections in the oddest places – like the toilets at Geneva airport – or scheduling procedures reliant on your body clock around immovable diary entries.”