Davidson wins backing of top Tories in leadership bid

SCOTTISH Conservative leadership candidate Ruth Davidson has won the backing of two senior party figures ahead of her official campaign launch in Edinburgh today.

Ms Davidson was yesterday endorsed by Tory MSP John Scott, a deputy presiding officer at Holyrood, as well as one of the party’s former MSPs, Murray Tosh.

They attacked controversial proposals from Ms Davidson’s rival and leadership election front-runner Murdo Fraser, for a breakaway centre-right party as “navel-gazing” and a move to rip the Scottish Conservatives apart.

Meanwhile, leading Scottish composer James MacMillan, appealed to Mr Fraser in an open letter to do more to attract socially conservative Labour supporters to his proposed renamed party that would breakaway from the UK Tories.

Mr MacMillan said: “Huge swathes of Scottish ex-Labourites are now desperate for a political voice for their social and moral conservatism. I feel, therefore, that you have to prove your pro-family, pro-marriage and pro-life credentials. If you do this successfully, a lot of people who would never have dared vote Tory could be attracted.”