Leader: True-blue Conservative’s rallying cry

DAVID Mundell, the sole Conservative MP representing a Scottish seat at Westminster, has now formally declared himself as a supporter of Ruth Davidson for the party leadership in Scotland, and again expressed his opposition to plans by rival candidate Murdo Fraser to create a new centre-right party.

While Mr Mundell’s declaration on the eve of the party conference in Manchester was predictable, it is the force of the rhetoric that suggests that, far from the election resolving these differences, the aftermath may well see the party as we know it split in two.

Mr Mundell said yesterday he would not stand for a new centre-right party. He declared that at the next UK election “I want to see a majority Conservative government. I don’t want a coalition, not with the Liberal Democrats, not with some new party that sets up to take over from the Conservatives in Scotland…

“If I am fortunate enough to be re-elected in 2015, I will be taking the Conservative whip, not entering into coalition negotiations as proposed by some who want a new party”.

This is a slap-down of Mr Fraser on two counts. First, it makes clear Mr Mundell will not be supporting him. And second, it pre-supposes there will still be a Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party which will select him as a candidate – and quite possibly standing against Mr Fraser’s new party.

This is morphing from a feisty leadership contest into something that could end in civil war – and the ruination of the centre-right.