Ruth Davidson fuelled speculation about her Tory leadership ambitions last night as she revealed she may stand for parliament at the next election
Ruth Davidson fuelled speculation about her Tory leadership ambitions last night as she revealed she may stand for parliament at the next election.
The charismatic Scottish Conservative leader, who has overseen a Tory revival north of the border, is widely considered one of the party’s brightest stars.
Several leading figures, including David Cameron, are said to have encouraged her to stand for the party leadership in future – a move which would require her to become a Westminster MP.
Until now she has insisted her ambitions lie solely in Scottish politics.
In an interview with the Spectator magazine yesterday, she confirmed her sights are set on dislodging Nicola Sturgeon.
She ruled out taking on the job of Conservative Party chairman, insisting that ‘leading the party in Scotland is a bigger job than being Conservative party chairman’.
But she dropped heavy hints that she will consider a move to Westminster if she fails to become Scotland’s First Minister in 2021.
When asked what could happen if the Tories come third in the 2021 Scottish elections, after recent polls showed Labour in second place, she said: ‘I’ve been leader of the party now for six years. My two predecessors lasted six and a half years each.’
By the time of the next Holyrood elections, she would have been in charge of the party for ‘significantly longer’ than them, and said: ‘Then we can start other conversations.’
Several leading figures, including David Cameron, are said to have encouraged Ms Davidson to stand for the party leadership in future – a move which would require her to become a Westminster MP
Asked if those would include conversations about her coming to Westminster, she said: ‘I haven’t ruled it out. If devolution is going to work, then actually there has to be the ability to move between chambers and parliaments.’
Pressed further on if she would only stand for a Scottish seat, Miss Davidson said: ‘Yes.’
Miss Davidson has fuelled speculation about her ambitions during a series of trips south of the border.
During a well-received appearance at the backbench 1922 committee last month she told Tory MPs she now saw Labour as the biggest threat to the Union.
Yesterday she declared that Jeremy Corbyn would be ’eminently beatable’ in the next general election in 2022.
On coming to Westminster, Miss Davidson (pictured with her partner Jen Wilson) said: ‘I haven’t ruled it out. If devolution is going to work, then actually there has to be the ability to move between chambers and parliaments’
She said that in this year’s election voters viewed the veteran left-winger as a ‘safe receptacle because everybody had written off his chances’ but said that he would ‘not be a safe receptacle next time’.
Miss Davidson suggested the Tory election campaign had been too controlled and boring this year, and said the huge opinion polls enjoyed by Theresa May before the election had damaged her chances.
‘Voters don’t like results being declared before they have cast their votes, thanks very much,’ she said. ‘There was a bit of a backlash there.’
Under her leadership the Conservatives have become the second largest party at Holyrood, returning a record 31 MSPs to the Parliament in Edinburgh in 2015 and removing Labour as the main party of opposition.
And while the Conservatives in England lost seats in the June 2016 general election, the Scottish Conservative tally of MPs went from one to 13.