Cameron&Co 'will take five years to win over Scotland'

Published on Tuesday 30 September 2008 22:30

SCOTLAND will not vote Conservative in substantial numbers until David Cameron has won an election and banished the legacy of Thatcherism, the party's Scottish leaders admitted yesterday.

They suggested that a revival of the party's fortunes could lag at least four to five years behind any landslide in England that hands Mr Cameron the keys to Downing Street.

The Tories have only one seat in Scotland at present – Dumfriesshire, which is held by David Mundell – and they refuse to put a figure on expected gains.

But one prominent candidate for Westminster admitted privately at the annual conference in Birmingham this week that he was expecting the Tories to win only "two to four" Scottish seats at the next election.

Yesterday, Mr Mundell, the shadow Scottish Secretary, said Mr Cameron's key task on becoming Prime Minister was to "seal the deal" with Scots voters who had deserted the party in the 1990s.

Addressing a fringe meeting, Mr Mundell said: "It's not going to be until we actually have a Conservative UK government that many people in Scotland, who by all their instincts are Conservative, are actually going to return to the fold.

"So much mythology has grown up over the last 10 to 11 years as to what having a Conservative government was like, what it meant for Scotland. Yes, there were mistakes.

"(But] only when people see that the sky doesn't fall in the day after the election, when they see the competence and responsibility of a Conservative UK government, will we be able with these people to seal the deal."

Mr Mundell refused to offer a "hostage to fortune" and set a figure for anticipated gains. This contrasts with the SNP's aim of increasing its Westminster group from seven – and possibly eight after the Glenrothes by-election – to 20.

Annabel Goldie, the party's group leader in the Scottish Parliament, agreed there was no expectation of a "magical breakthrough" north of the Border.

Asked why there was not greater support for a party advocating tax cuts, she admitted: "People say to me, 'Will there be a mercurial, magical breakthrough in Scotland?' I have to say no."

Mr Mundell said

a Tory government would "respect" the powers of the Scottish Parliament – but would expect to be allowed in return to control UK-wide issues, such as the economy, defence and foreign affairs.

Yesterday, Mr Cameron said UK ministers would be expected to appear before Holyrood committees to explain their policies to Scotland.

"In return for respecting the Scottish Government, we will expect it to respect us," Mr Mundell said.

"We will have the right under the devolution settlement, whether the SNP likes that or not, to implement David Cameron's agenda in reserved matters regardless of how many MPs in Scotland we have."

The first principle was that a Conservative government "will never do anything which will put the Union at risk".

The joint ministerial committee – which allows Westminster politicians to meet those in the devolved governments – would have to be "strengthened".

Then, in the medium term, the party would look to the Calman Commission to bring forward ideas for updating the Scotland Act, which sets out the rules on devolution.

Mr Mundell said: "The Scotland we return to as a government will be very different from the one we left in 1997, because of the devolution settlement.

"If Alex Salmond believes that the arrival of a Conservative government will somehow be a precursor to a surge in independence support, like so many issues, he will be wrong."

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