guardian.co.uk,
Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent, Friday 4 November 2011
Ruth Davidson prepares to be announced as the new leader of the Scottish Conservative party. Photograph: David Moir/REUTERS |
An openly
gay woman has been elected leader of the Scottish Conservatives after the
membership rejected her leading rival's radical proposals to create a new
centre-right party.
Ruth
Davidson, 32, widely seen as David Cameron's favourite, was chosen to lead the
Scottish Conservative and Unionist party by a comfortable margin after the most
bitterly-fought and divisive leadership campaign in party history.
Officials
in London believe that Davidson, a lesbian and the youngest of the four
candidates, will be able to freshen up the Tories' faltering appeal to Scottish
voters.
She has
only been an MSP for six months after working as a senior aide to Annabel
Goldie, the departing party leader and campaigned against any significant
increases in the Scottish parliament's powers.
Her victory
saves the prime minister from the embarrassment of watching the UK party being
split by Davidson's rival for the leadership, Murdo Fraser.
In a statement
released on her election, Davidson said: "With the radical, generational
change that I represent, this is a unique opportunity for us to rebuild the
party and to once again become a powerful, meaningful and relevant force in
Scottish politics and in Scottish life."
A former
Territorial Army officer and kick-boxer, Davidson campaigned vigorously against
Fraser's dramatic proposals to scrap the party and replace it with a new
"progressive" organisation which would be independent of David
Cameron's Tories.
Fraser's
proposals, based on his belief that the Tory brand was "toxic" to
Scottish voters, won the support of many prominent Scottish figures, including
the Tory MEP Struan Stevenson, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Alex Fergusson, the former
Holyrood presiding officer, and a clear majority of the 11 MSPs not standing in
the leadership election.
He said it
would revitalise centre-right politics and enable the rebranded Tories to
attract hundreds of thousands of disenchanted voters. Failing to do so would
see the party disappear, he said. The proposals instead led to civil war within
the party, and were described as "madness" by his critics.
Davidson,
who only joined the party in 2009 to fight the Glasgow North East byelection
after a career as a BBC journalist, vigorously attacked Fraser's proposition.
Supported
by other senior figures such as Lord Forsyth, she accused Fraser of an
"existential crisis" and "wringing his hands" about the
future of the party, which has repeatedly fared badly in the polls. The party
has only succeeded in returning one MP to Westminster in the last three
elections, and lost two seats at Holyrood in May.
Her victory
now presents the Scottish Tories with the delicate task of reuniting a party
left deeply split and in open warfare over Fraser's proposals. She remains the
most politically and professionally inexperienced party leader at Holyrood.
She said:
"A political party isn't a leader. A political party is its membership and
I want to bring our members, at all levels, much closer together and to take
our party forward in unity.
"We've
had a number of very robust hustings up and down the country. [It] has been
lively, it has been energetic but it has really engaged our members. All of us
can be proud about how we've increased the debate about Scottish Conservatism
going forward, a Scottish Conservatism that will be alive and kicking."
Davidson
was quickly congratulated on her victory by her Labour and Liberal Democrat
opposite numbers. Iain Gray, acting leader of the Scottish Labour party, said:
"She has shown a lot of energy and drive to win her party's election.
While I disagree with her fundamentally on politics I look forward to the
contribution she will make to the Scottish parliament."
Willie
Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, added: "I am really
pleased to congratulate Ruth on her new appointment as leader of the Scottish
Conservatives. I look forward to working with her, in her new role, as we
strive to hold the SNP government to account."
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