Ruth Davidson Promises No More Devolution If She Wins Scottish Tory Leadership

Ruth Davidson has promised to draw a “line in the sand” on the constitution by promising the Scottish Conservatives would oppose more powers for Holyrood if she is elected leader.







Speaking at the official launch of her campaign in Edinburgh, she said the range of powers included in the Coalition Government’s Scotland Bill should be the final word on devolution.

She also delivered a withering attack on leadership rival Murdo Fraser’s plans to start a new right-wing party to replace the Tories, saying there would be “existential crisis, no wringing of hands” under her leadership.

But the 32-year-old estimated that it would take a decade to turn around the Scottish Conservatives’ dismal election performances and make the party a political force.

Miss Davidson also brushed aside concerns about how she could lead the current Holyrood group of MSPs, the largest group of whom have backed Mr Fraser and his plan for a new party.

Sir Jamie McGrigor has become the latest MSP to back him. But the leadership contest will be decided by party members, many of whom remain fiercely loyal to the Tory brand and deeply suspicious about devolution threatening the Union.

Mr Fraser remains the bookies’ favourite to replace Annabel Goldie as leader but has not ruled out supporting the transfer of more taxation powers to Holyrood after the Scotland Bill has been enacted.

This was vigorously opposed by Miss Davidson, who said: “The Scotland Bill currently going through Westminster is the line in the sand.

“The time for arguing about the powers the people want is over. It’s time now to use the powers that we have.”

The Glasgow MSP also claimed to be the best candidate to thwart Alex Salmond’s separation plan during the forthcoming independence referendum campaign.

“I believe the United Kingdom is a force for good in the world. I will make that positive case for the Union and together we will win as we have right on our side,” Miss Davidson said.

“No halfway house, no second question, no march to fiscal autonomy. When the referendum is done and Scotland in the Union has won the day, let that be an end to it.”

The early skirmishes of the campaign have been dominated by Mr Fraser’s assertion that the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party has no future in its current form and must be replaced.

The Daily Telegraph has revealed how a jittery Mr Fraser has sent messages to hundreds of sceptical members trying to convince them this would not mean disbanding their party.

In an appeal to rank-and-file members, Miss Davidson said: “I have no interest in change for its own sake. We could spend the next 12 months discussing the internal machinations of the party.

“We could tie ourselves in knots. Alex Salmond would love that. Real change for the Scottish Conservatives won’t come from a new name.”

She added: “Under my leadership, there will be no existential crisis, no wringing of hands. Instead I want people to call themselves Scottish, Conservative and Unionist.”

Jackson Carlaw, a West of Scotland MSP also opposed to Mr Fraser's plan, is the third candidate standing for the leadership.

Scottish Tory Leadership Candidate Rejects Call For Greater Economic Powers

Ruth Davidson distances herself from rival contender Murdo Fraser's proposal to scrap ties with UK Tory party.












Ruth Davidson the first openly gay Tory to stand for the party leadership, opens her campaign.

A contender to become Scotland's next Tory leader has rejected demands for far greater economic powers for the Scottish parliament in an open appeal to traditional Tory voters.

Ruth Davidson, at 32 the youngest of the three candidates and the first openly gay Tory to stand for the party leadership, would draw "a line in the sand" at new powers to give modest control over income tax and borrowing.

She also repeatedly distanced herself from Murdo Fraser, the favourite, by dismissing his dramatic proposal to scrap the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party and replace it with a centre-right party separate from the UK Tory party.

That was a "distraction" which would "tie the party in knots" for a year, Davidson said before rejecting the suggestion for more financial autonomy for Scotland, also supported by Fraser.

Portraying herself as the fresh-faced saviour, Davidson said: "Under my leadership, there will be no existential crisis, no wringing of hands. [The] values which made me an instinctive Conservative - that drive my politics - are shared by Scots the length and breadth of the country."

She predicted, however, that it would take a decade before the Tories were strong enough to share power at Holyrood. Her primary objective was to defend the United Kingdom in the run-up to the independence referendum being proposed by the Scottish government.

She described the measures being debated in the Lords to give Holyrood powers over income tax and new £2bn borrowing powers as a one-off "MOT" for the Scottish parliament.

She also dismissed proposals to set a second question on increased financial powers at the referendum.

"I believe that the United Kingdom is a force for good in this world. I believe that we in Scotland walk taller, shout louder and stand stronger for being part of that union," she said, as she became the last of the candidates to launch her campaign.

At the referendum, there would be "no half-way house, no second question, no march to fiscal autonomy. When the referendum is done and Scotland in the union has won the day, let that be an end to it."

Davidson is said to be the candidate most favoured by David Cameron but is the least experienced and least well-known.

Fraser has held a series of prominent party positions, been an MSP for 10 years and is deputy leader at the Scottish parliament.

Jackson Carlaw, the other contender, is seen as the most right-wing and traditional. Twice elected deputy chairman of the Scottish party and a list MSP since 2007, he has a strong base in the west of Scotland party but is seen by senior party figures as too reactionary to suit modern Scottish voters.

Davidson, a former BBC journalist and Territorial Army officer, has a female life partner was elected to Holyrood in May on the party list for Glasgow. She has attracted the fewest well-known supporters, besides John Lamont, one of the few Tories to win a constituency seat outright in May.

She said she was the only candidate who can present herself as one of a new generation of Tories who could convince Scottish voters to rejoin the party.

Younger voters knew little and cared little about Margaret Thatcher's premiership, a period many Tories concede destroyed the party's reputation in Scotland.

After losing every Westminster seat in 1997, the Scottish Tories have had only one MP for the last three elections. In Scotland it lost two seats at the May Holyrood elections, bringing their numbers down to 15.

"There's not just one but two generations of voters after me who have no knowledge of Margaret Thatcher ... Scotland has moved on. The Scottish Conservative party has moved on," she said.

SNP ‘Ducking And Diving’ On Poll

Opposition parties have responded to a poll showing a Yes vote for independence leading a No vote by saying the First Minister should stop “ducking and diving” and get on with the referendum.


















The survey – the latest in a series of 10 identical snapshots by TNS-BMRB, revealed exclusively by The Herald yesterday – put those in favour of Scotland breaking from the rest of the UK ahead by 39% to 38%, only the second time this has happened in the series and the first time for more than three years.

Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray said: “It is no surprise that, after the SNP winning a majority, many Scots are thinking about our constitutional future, and that is right.

“We saw a similar effect after the SNP first formed a government in 2007.

“The SNP is going to hold a referendum and the important thing is that it stops ducking and diving on the date, the question, and what it means by separation.”

He added: “The people of Scotland have a right to know what exactly the SNP is proposing, and to debate those plans for separation with all the information necessary.

“After four years and several White Papers, it is just not credible for Alex Salmond to claim he cannot answer the basic questions.”

Echoing those sentiments, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie MSP said: “This poll confirms that independence is closer than ever before, with there now being a real danger than Scotland could split from the rest of the UK.

“The SNP has successfully created a warm fuzzy glow about how Scotland would perform as a separate country but has failed to provide any of the detail as to the costs of that separation.

“It has so far refused to answer the six big questions on independence posed last week but it cannot duck and dive for ever.”

The Scottish Tories, now in the middle of a leadership battle, did not respond but a Downing Street spokesman insisted: “The Prime Minister’s position on the Union is clear.

“He has said on a number of occasions that he would make the case for it again and again.”

A spokesman for the First Minister said: “We welcome this poll showing a majority for independence and showing growing numbers of people in Scotland are determined this country should aspire to a better future, taking responsibility for our own affairs.

“Clearly, the attacks on independence in recent days from the Westminster Tory and LibDem Coalition Government – far from making a positive case for the Union – have backfired badly and boomeranged on them.

“The UK Government has so far refused to respect the result of the Scottish election in May, in terms of the need for more powers, and has resorted to recycling old scare stories instead.

“The people of Scotland do not respond well to such scare stories and the fact that negative campaigning does not work was one of the essential lessons of the recent Scottish election, but the Unionist parties do not seem to have learned from that.

“The more that Scotland is talked down to, the more the people of Scotland will set their sights on a better future.”

The TNS-BMRB has used the wording suggested in the White Paper four years ago to ask people on a straight agree/disagree basis.

Apart from the headline figures of the 39%-38% lead for independence, the high level of undecideds, at 23%, would make a referendum campaign all to play for.

The poll showed greatest hostility to independence in Lothian and the south of Scotland, where opposition is still some 15 to 16 points ahead.

Support among men is higher than among women by 43% to 36% and peaks between the ages of 34 and 44 at 47% compared with 32% against.