Davidson kills off Tories’ revolution

RADICAL plans for a breakaway new right-of-centre force in Scottish politics were killed off last night as Ruth Davidson defeated her closest rival, Murdo Fraser, to become leader of the Conservative Party in Scotland.

Ms Davidson beat Mr Fraser – who stood for leader on the promise of scrapping the Tory Party north of the Border – by 2,983 votes to 2,417 and declared that Conservatism in Scotland was “alive and kicking”.

In an emotional victory speech in Edinburgh last night – after one of the most bitter internal party elections in living memory – she promised to bring the Tories “closer together”.

Ms Davidson pointedly spoke of the “Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party” in her speech – widely seen as a coded attack on Mr Fraser’s plans, which the new leader had previously branded a “destabilising distraction”.

Meanwhile, a grim-faced Mr Fraser insisted his pledge for a split from Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives had been the right platform on which to campaign and that it would have been “dishonest” not to raise the issue.

After a tense five-hour count at a hotel in the capital, party officials announced the result of a four-way contest that saw the two other candidates, Margaret Mitchell and Jackson Carlaw, eliminated after the first and second rounds respectively, with each MSP winning only hundreds of votes.

Ms Davidson’s lead over Mr Fraser was fewer than 200 in the first stage of the vote, by a margin of 2,278 to 2,096, but after the second preferences of the two eliminated candidates were counted, the new leader was elected by a majority of more than 500 votes.

The victory for Ms Davidson represents a meteoric rise for the 32-year-old former Territorial Army soldier, who less than a year ago was working as a press aide to her predecessor, Annabel Goldie.

Mr Fraser pledged to “rally around and support the new leader”, but would not say whether he wanted to remain as deputy Scottish Conservative leader.

The Mid Scotland and Fife MSP had enjoyed the overwhelming support of Tories at Holyrood, with seven MSPs backing him for leader, compared with only two for Ms Davidson.

The new party leader would not be drawn on whether she would invite Mr Fraser to join her on the party’s front-bench, saying that there would be an announcement in the coming days on the make-up of her Holyrood team. But the result of yesterday’s ballot, involving 63.4 per cent of the 8,500 Scottish Tory members, means Ms Davidson has been handed a mandate for a lengthy tenure.

Mr Cameron was quick to congratulate Ms Davidson, who was believed to be the favoured candidate of the Westminster Tory leadership.

He said: “I am delighted to congratulate Ruth on winning this leadership election and look forward to working with her to strengthen the Union and build a better future for Scotland.”

Ms Davidson, who is expected to spell out details of her plans for the future of the party at an event in Edinburgh today, said: “This is the first time that our members have been asked to elect a leader for the whole party in Scotland, and I’ve met our members from Selkirk to Shetland and all points in between.

“They’ve been engaged, they’ve been enthusiastic, they’ve been welcoming and they’re excited about our bright future too.

“A political party is not a leader, a political party is its membership, and I want to bring our members at all levels much closer together in our party going forward and to take our party forward in unity.”

Ms Davidson – who was only elected in this year’s Holyrood elections after she was moved up to number one on the Tory list at the 11th hour following the resignation of businessman Malcolm Macaskill – paid tribute to former leader Miss Goldie.

She said: “Annabel has been a fantastic leader of the MSP group, and we all owe her a great debt for her service and for her hard work over a number of years.”

Pledging to overhaul the party machinery in Scotland, she promised to launch two new policy commissions to look at support for the Scottish business and fishing communities, both of which she said she would listen to.

Meanwhile, Mr Fraser – who said at his leadership bid launch that the Scottish Conservative Party “will never succeed in its current form” and that it had to either “adapt or die” – accepted his controversial campaign had failed.

He said: “Clearly I’m disappointed that I was not able to persuade more of our members that my vision for the future is the correct one.

“But I congratulate Ruth Davidson on her victory, and she will have my full support, as she tries to take the party forward. We now need to rally around and support the new leader.”

Mr Fraser compared his decision to run for the leadership on the promise of a renamed and reformed centre-right party to the 16th-century French monarch Henry IV’s renouncement of Protestanism.

Quoting from a speech by the king, he said: “Paris is well worth a Mass.”

During the campaign, Mr Fraser’s plans were repeatedly attacked by his rivals, with Tory financier Sir Jack Harvie, who raises the bulk of the Scottish Conservatives’ £1 million annual funds, issuing a stark warning that the “arrangement would most certainly not apply” if the proposals for a breakaway centre-right party were approved.

However, Mr Fraser enjoyed the support of party grandees, such as former Scottish Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind and former leader at Holyrood David McLetchie.

Rival candidate Mrs Mitchell, a back-bench Central Scotland MSP, said Mr Fraser’s proposals were “absolute madness” in a strongly worded attack at the start of her late entry into the leadership race.

Mrs Mitchell, who said that she was running a “no frills” campaign similar to that of Barack Obama’s iconic “Yes We Can” campaign that swept him to the United States presidency, polled only 472 votes and was eliminated at the first stage.

Former car salesman Mr Carlaw, the Scottish Conservative transport spokesman, polled 830 votes in the first stage of votes, but after Mrs Mitchell’s elimination his support went up to 980 due to second and third preferences of members.

Tory Scotland Office minister David Mundell, the party’s only MP north of the Border, who attacked Mr Fraser’s split proposals as a “betrayal”, last night hailed the election of the new party leader.

He said: “I’m delighted with the result. Clearly the members want change.

“Ruth is a dynamic young human being who’s not a stereotypical Tory. She’s not a toff for example.

“She’s a young and vibrant new leader who will bring real change to the party.”

Miss Goldie said that the result marked a “key point in the history of the party” in Scotland in the run-up to the Scottish Government’s planned independence referendum.

She said: “Ruth now has a mandate from our members to be leader of not just the MSP group, but of the whole party.

“She will benefit hugely from both these new powers and that stature.

“We are at a crucial point in Scottish politics. We have a huge responsibility to hold the SNP to account and fight off their plan for separation.

“We face council elections in six months’ time with important choices to be made.”

First Minister Alex Salmond congratulated Ms Davidson, but highlighted the fact that nearly 37 per cent of Scottish Conservative Party members did not vote in the contest.

Mr Salmond said: “Congratulations to Ruth Davidson on her success, and I wish her well.

“My own view is that Annabel Goldie was a highly successful leader for the Conservatives in Scotland, and maximised the Tory vote here.

“That merely underlines the scale of the task for Ruth Davidson in motivating her party – as does the number of Scottish Tory members who actually voted in this contest, and the fact that her main opponent proposed winding up the party.”

Scottish Labour’s outgoing leader at Holyrood, Iain Gray, said: “I congratulate Ruth on her achievement. She only recently became an MSP, but now she is the new face of the Tories in Scotland.”