True blue: an interview with Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson

When Holyrood meets Davidson, the Scottish Parliament is cloaked in its usual recess silence. A few researchers scuttle around the corridors and the occasional MSP is spotted in search of coffee but the habitual buzz and energy is noticeably lacking. However, on entering the Conservative leader’s office, the sleepy feeling in the rest of the parliament is instantly dispelled. Davidson, who has been an MSP since May 2011 and in charge of the Scottish Tories since November the same year, is full of energy. 

Her self-confessed Diet Coke addiction is in evidence with a bottle and can of the stuff dotted around the small room and she brims with confidence. Comfortable and relaxed answering questions from the media, Davidson doesn’t flinch as Holyrood’s photographer takes pictures throughout this interview. She gives off the vibe of a no-nonsense head girl who is extremely sure of herself and would tell you off for cutting class or slouching. 

The big story out of this election is going to be the Liberal Democrat collapse

When talking about her party, this feeling of confidence becomes even more evident. Going into the General Election in May and the party’s conference on Friday, Davidson believes the Conservative Party is in a strong position.

She said: “We came out of the referendum with more supporters, more activists, more donors and more people coming forward wanting to be Conservative candidates. We also came out with a campaign team which had been tested in earnest and that is hugely gratifying and heartening because we’re taking that into the General Election.

“From a personal point of view, I kind of hoped there would be a dip in tempo between September and now but there hasn’t been. We’re all still full cylinders at it with 88 days to go – I’ve got an app on my phone which tells me exactly how many hours and minutes we’ve got until the polls open. I love campaigning; you wouldn’t do this job if you didn’t. It’s great to get around the country, I’ve never been one to sit behind a desk, so it is really good to get out there with our candidates and make arguments.”

September’s referendum has had far reaching consequences for all the political parties, both in terms of projections for Westminster seats gained and in levels of political engagement.

Davidson said: “The referendum has echoed through Scottish politics since close of polls on 18 September. One of the reasons why recent polling is showing so many different results is, we’re in a huge state of flux. It will probably be in the closing stages of this election campaign that people will actually turn their attention to what it is about, and that is, will Ed Miliband or David Cameron be Prime Minister?

“[The referendum] lit people on fire. I was standing in a taxi queue in Glasgow at 2am after a birthday party and the people behind me were discussing the Barnett formula. I never thought I’d see that in Scotland and it was really wonderful.

“I think we are going to be the only pro-Union party that comes out of the General Election better than we went in. We are not just holding our own but you saw from the recent Ashcroft polling that 10 per cent of Liberal Democrats are now voting Tory so we want to build on that. In terms of the referendum casting a shadow on this General Election, I think it is but the big story out of this election is going to be the Liberal Democrat collapse. I think it is going to be similar to their 1948 wipe-out or our 1997 wipe-out, it is going to be a huge event. The Conservative Party’s strength, as well as its weakness, in Scotland is our vote is spread all over the country. Last time we got over 400,000 votes, the same as the SNP and the Liberal Democrats but we only got one seat and the Libs got 11. It’s about concentrating our forces and showing people that we can start winning seats again. That’s the focus for me.

“We’re in good heart, we’ve been working exceptionally hard and I think the real thing in people’s minds for the General Election in Scotland is that they’ve finally seen the Conservative Party in Scotland stand for something. They’ve seen it stand against plenty of things but during the referendum, they saw us stand for something and for something we really believed in.”

In terms of big election issues, Davidson believes the economy lies at the heart of many people’s worries and concerns. 

She said: “The last Labour Government left us with a huge peacetime deficit, rising unemployment and basically, a note which said, ‘sorry, there’s no money left’ as they laughed and left office. Actually, we’ve had to take some really tough decisions. We now have the fastest growing major economy in the western world, we’ve had more than 1.75 million jobs created in the past five years, we’ve kept interest rates low, we’ve kept mortgages low and we’re now beginning to see wages and earnings outstripping prices so people are beginning to feel like they’ve come through the worst of it. 

“The question is, we’ve done all the hard work, so do you go back and undo it all or do you see this through? For me, it’s not just an economic issue, though that’s important, it’s a moral one too. There’s nothing socially just about landing future generations with our debts and a structural deficit which they can’t hope to eliminate. We have to, as a country, learn to manage our economy and live within our means and not have a millstone around the necks of future generations.”

In a recent letter to party members and supporters, Davidson said voting Conservative in May is the only sure way of preserving the United Kingdom. She warned of the consequences of the SNP’s plans to get Alex Salmond elected to Westminster then negotiate a pact with Labour if there is a hung parliament.

If you want a strong Scotland within the United Kingdom, you have to vote for it 

When asked by Holyrood to explain this further, Davidson added: “What is very clear is Ed Miliband has been given opportunity after opportunity to say that he won’t do a deal with the SNP. Nicola, Stuart Hosie and other senior members of the SNP team have also been given opportunities to say they won’t do a deal with Labour. They haven’t taken those and they’re halfway down the aisle already in terms of a stitch-up after the election. My fear is Ed Miliband is too weak a leader to stand up to Nicola Sturgeon or Alex Salmond and the concessions the SNP would wring from him. I genuinely worry that that sort of deal would herald the break-up of the United Kingdom.

“I and my activists have spoken to people who are so concerned that despite the SNP saying the referendum was once in a generation and they would respect the result, as soon as 19 September came, there was a renewed push to break up the United Kingdom. There are people who voted No out of a sincere conviction that they wanted Scotland to flourish within the UK and they didn’t want Britain to be broken up, they are now genuinely worried they will see a break-up by the back door in contravention of the democratic will of the Scottish people. That’s a serious concern.”

On the morning of 19 September, Prime Minister David Cameron appeared to use the referendum result as a means to exclude Scottish MPs from voting on certain issues, does Davidson think there a danger this could lead to independence by another means?

She said: “I don’t think so. It is about devolution working and it is unlikely you were ever going to get everything right first time – there’s a reason why we have reviewed Scottish devolution through the Calman Commission and the Smith Commission. There is an issue where politicians sitting in the Commons who represent English or Welsh constituencies, are voting on something which affects their constituents but their votes could be overridden by MPs from other parts of the country, for example, Northern Ireland or Scotland, whose constituents could never be affected by the decisions they make.

“That’s why I was happy to fight in the 2010 General Election with this in our manifesto, in fact, it has been in every Conservative manifesto since 2001. This is about equity and for all the SNP are trying to stir things up about it now, they haven’t voted on English-only matters, they’ve recused themselves because they recognise the inequity of it. Bizarrely, you’ve got the SNP and us on the same side on this one.”

Davidson believes it is time the Conservative Party in Scotland stops apologising for itself. She added: “We do exactly what it says on the tin. For too long, after our 1997 wipe-out, we as a party apologised for ourselves. We were cowed and if we were talking we would say, ‘I’m sorry I’m a Conservative but…’ rather than saying, ‘I believe in this and if you believe in this too, you are also a Tory’. That’s what I’ve tried to do, to throw off the sackcloth and ashes that people in the party had before I became leader.

Ed Miliband is too weak a leader to stand up to Nicola Sturgeon or Alex Salmond

“We do stand for something. We stand for the United Kingdom and we believe in aspiration and hard work, we believe in just reward, we believe in people who go out and work keeping more of the money they earn and being able to decide themselves how they spend it. We believe in choice and freedom of choice for people so you don’t have a one-size-fits-all education system, so parents can decide what type of education they want their child to have. 

“We believe in personal freedom and personal responsibility. We believe the state is there to give people a hand up but we don’t believe it should keep them forever on benefits and that’s why we are trying to get people back into work and why we want to ensure that work pays. We stand for the idea of a society that helps those in need but doesn’t hold back those who want to go out and achieve.

“Our opponents will try and make ‘Tory’ seem like a bad word because they want people who might vote for us to vote for their party instead. My job, as leader of the Conservative Party, is to show what we stand for and who we stand with. We’re on the side of people who want to get out and earn a living. For those people who are struggling to find a job, we want to help them find a job and for those who are in a job, we want them to keep more of the money they earn. For those who want to start a business, we want the government to get out of their way.”

Local government and issues about how public services are paid for are currently top of the agenda for all the political parties in Scotland. Davidson believes this is going to be a big political battleground.

She added: “When you’ve got something like the City Deal for the Glasgow area passing on real powers on infrastructure and spending to not just one local authority but a group of local authorities working together, there’s a real story to tell there. The issue we have at the moment with the current Scottish Government is we have a government which has been trying to centralise everything that moves. 

“Devolution isn’t about transferring powers from Westminster to Holyrood, devolution should be about passing powers as close to people as you can, where it makes the most sense. If that means allowing local infrastructure projects to be run by councils, then absolutely. I believe the Aberdeen area is working up a similar bid to what we saw in Glasgow and it should be looked at. Look at the infrastructure issues in the north-east, roads and rail issues which haven’t been addressed by successive Scottish Governments. This is an economic powerhouse of Scotland that frankly has been a Cinderella area in terms of government spending. 

“Some of the issues which the Glasgow area City Deal is looking at are really important, for example, the Glasgow Airport rail link which the current Scottish Government scrapped. Fair play, the Conservatives at the time said the proposals which were on the table at that time cost too much money and we wanted to put this cash elsewhere. However, if you look at one of the areas they are examining now, one option is a light tram train which, instead of being a whole separate line that runs from Glasgow Airport into Central Station, joins the St James interchange at Paisley and has the same gauge so it runs on the same track.”

Finally, when asked about what her message to conference will be on Friday, Davidson said there is “a clear choice” for the electorate in May. She believes people have power in their own hands in regards to what happens to Scotland as a country. 

“If you want a strong economy, if you want a strong Scotland within the United Kingdom, you have to vote for it and the Scottish Conservatives is where your vote should be,” she said.