Tories on verge of ‘nervous breakdown’, says Ruth Davidson

The Tories are on the verge of a ‘nervous breakdown’ and need to ‘man up’, the party’s leader in Scotland warned today.

Ruth Davidson delivered the damning assessment as the Conservative conference in Manchester was again wracked by damaging infighting.

Boris Johnson is facing a backlash from MPs and Cabinet colleagues over leadership manoeuvring that has seen him draw a series of Brexit red lines.

Chancellor Philip Hammond delivered a thinly veiled rebuke by insisting no ministers were ‘unsackable’, while the PM’s effective deputy Damian Green said the rows were undermining negotiations with the EU. 

Despite his high-profile interventions, Mr Johnson denied he was deliberately fueling the spat saying he was just repeating government policy and did not know what all the ‘fuss’ was about.

Downing Street has played down the prospect of the Cabinet big beast being sacked, saying his views are well known.

Ms Davidson, who oversaw a Tory surge north of the border in June, was urged to come to Westminster and ‘save’ the party by some members at a Times Red Box fringe event today.

She replied: ‘I don’t think the party needs saving. I think it needs to get over its current nervous breakdown and man up a little bit.’

In a pointed jibe at Mr Johnson, with whom she has clashed in the past, Ms Davidson said she had no explanation for his behaviour.

‘If I was able to interpret the actions and the thought process behind the actions of the Foreign Secretary then I think I could make a better living doing that than I do now,’ she said. 

When she was asked if she was a female Boris Johnson, she joked: ‘I think it’s fair to say I don’t speak as much Greek as the Foreign Secretary.’

Ms Davidson also took a swipe at the PM’s inability to enforce discipline on her top team.  

‘I have a lot of MSPs at this conference – if any of you think about writing anything without telling me that runs counter to Conservative policy, you’re out on your ear because nobody is unsackable,’ she said. 

In a withering verdict on the Tory election campaign, she said plans to overhaul social care was ‘a reform that to explain takes a paragraph, but it doesn’t even take a sentence to knock it down’.

‘You just say dementia tax and everyone runs away,’Ms Davidson added.

Mrs May refused to answer a question about whether Mr Johnson, pictured running in Manchester today, was ‘unsackable’

Senior figures are prepared to back Mrs May, pictured in Manchester with husband Philip today, should she decide Mr Johnson has to be sacked

MINISTER SAYS TORIES FACE CRISIS AS MEMBERS AGE AND DIE AS CABINET SPEAK IN EMPTY HALL

The Conservative Party is wasting away as its members age and die, a minister admitted today as senior MPs addressed a sparsely filled conference.

Philip Lee said ‘natural wastage’ was the biggest crisis facing the Conservatives and warned in a decade the party would be in a ‘losing position’. 

The junior justice minister made his admission on the conference fringe as a string of Cabinet ministers addressed a near empty hall in Manchester. 

Cabinet minsters addressed a near empty conference hall in Manchester today as only scores of activists turned out in the hall 

Scotland Secretary David Mundell and Wales Secretary Alun Cairns addressed ranks of empty seats in the main speeches.

The sight was in stark contrast to last week’s Labour’s conference in Brighton which was packed out for virtually every minute of every day. 

At the Social Market Foundation/Opinium fringe meeting this morning, Mr Lee said: ‘I do think it is hugely important, in fact I’d say this issue [appealing to younger voters], the challenge the Conservative party faces, is the challenge, actually.

‘Nick Clegg made some headlines recently for saying basically that Brexit wouldn’t have happened because of natural wastage now.

‘Rather unpalatable, but I wonder actually, in ten years’ time, because of natural wastage, whether we’re going to be in a similar losing position.’