Davidson wants Scottish Conservatives to go from being a good opposition to being a
RUTH DAVIDSON has a paradoxical stance on the General Election.
The Scottish Tory leader is coy about her target in terms of seats – “I’m superstitious, I don’t want to jinx it,” she says – but completely upfront about her goal of emerging as First Minister-in-waiting.
“My job in the next four years is to get us from being a good strong opposition to being a competent alternative government for Scotland,” she says.
“I know that we’ve got a road to travel on that. But in every community we’ve now got a Conservative councillor. People see the effort we’re making, the work we’re trying to achieve. Getting MPs in would bolster that too. It would help show that at every level of government we’re there and we’re a constructive force – we want to make things better in Scotland.”
After almost two decades in the doldrums, the Scottish Tories are on a roll. The last General Election saw them stuck on one MP, but by making her party a rallying point for Unionists in 2016, she doubled her MSPs from 15 to 31 and overtook Labour at Holyrood.
The Tories also pushed Labour into third place in last month’s council elections, their strongest result in more than 40 years.
With polls saying the Scottish Tories could now gain six MPs – more than they’ve had elected over the last quarter century
– Ms Davidson hopes Thursday will be the third panel in a resurrection triptych.
What’s the doorstep pitch? “There are lots of things in Scotland we should be talking about – education, the economy, supporting our public services – and at the moment those discussions are not happening because we’re constantly talking about the constitution. There’s a way to stop that. You can send Nicola Sturgeon a message and we can do that job for you.”
You say the SNP are fixated on the constitution, but you and Ms Sturgeon have been accused of being co-dependent, complicit in making independence the axis of Scottish politics because you both need it to drive votes. Are you the Ying and Yang of Yes and No?
She doesn’t appreciate the suggestion. “I desperately want to get this argument shelved so that we can talk about the other things that we all came into politics for. I don’t know anybody who came into politics for interminable constitutional discussions.
“We all came into politics to do things. We’ve put out position papers this year on education, the environment, agriculture, but everything in Scotland is getting drowned out.”
Another criticism is that the Tories are at it when they say