A question of leadership at a key moment in Scottish history – leader comment

Jackson Carlaw’s resignation has, temporarily at least, thrown the opposition to the Scottish Government into disarray.

If Douglas Ross and Ruth Davidson become leaders of the Scottish Conservative opposition to Nicola Sturgeon's SNP, will they be able to make an impact? (Picture: Greg Macvean)

How significant will Jackson Carlaw’s sudden resignation become? Perhaps far more than the loss of a leader after five months at first seems.

With polls showing support for independence rising above 50 per cent, his performance as Scottish Conservative leader was clearly not having the effect desired by his party on the issue that will be central to the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.

He admitted as much in his resignation statement, that he was not “the best-placed person” for the looming fight.

The increase in support for independence cannot be blamed entirely on him, but it was his task to persuade the public of the merits of the Union and he was clearly coming up short.

Whether his replacement – likely to be Douglas Ross MP with the soon-to-be-ennobled Ruth Davidson MSP as his representative at Holyrood – will change this trend, it is hard to say.

But, for unionists and nationalists alike, the stakes really could not be higher, a realisation which Downing Street appears to have recently grasped when they went into ‘panic mode’ with first Boris Johnson and then Michael Gove dispatched to Scotland to make their case – visits on which Carlaw was noticeably absent.

During her stint as party leader, Davidson proved herself to be a more than capable opponent for the First Minister, recently named the fifth most eloquent leader in the world.

But given Davidson’s decision to stand down as leader and her impending departure from Holyrood, will she still have the same passion, the same fight, to take Sturgeon to task? And will Ross be able to make an impact from Westminster where he is just one among 650 MPs with no leader’s platform from which to address the public?

It is extraordinary that the SNP has been in power for 13 years and still remains quite so popular. The party’s dominance has even raised concerns in some quarters that Scotland is on the way to becoming a one-party state.

All healthy democracies need an opposition capable of holding the Government to account.

But, with Labour still struggling and the Tories scrambling to rally behind a new leader, there is a risk that Scotland’s opposition will be weak and ineffective at what could turn out to be a key moment in its history.

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