Ruth Davidson warns of ‘painful’ and radical reform

Ruth Davidson, speaking in her first press conference since winning the leadership vote, said she would back the controversial move if Alex Salmond continues to refuse to bring the referendum forward.

Today, writing in Scotland on Sunday, Davidson is also warning her party that it faces radical reform, which might be “painful”, while holding out an olive branch to those she defeated in the bitter contest.

Asked yesterday if Prime Minister David Cameron should press ahead with legislation to hold the referendum rather than wait for the SNP government to do so, she replied: “If it was required.”

The First Minister has said he intends to wait until the latter half of the current Scottish Parliament before asking Scots whether they want to leave the UK. But, in one of her first announcements as the Scottish leader, Davidson yesterday acknowledged that discussions were ongoing about forcing the referendum to be held earlier.

Saying she was in “constant contact” with Conservative colleagues at Westminster on the issue, Davidson, 32, who succeeds Annabel Goldie as Scottish leader, added: “There’s some question of putting a time constraint on that [the independence vote], but I’ll see what my colleagues decide on that.” She added: “Scotland deserves the chance to a make a decision on this in good time.”

The suggestion is opposed vehemently by the SNP government, which has insisted it is for the Scottish Parliament to arrange the referendum. But Cameron has made several calls to hold the referendum as soon as possible, hinting that he may press ahead with the vote if Salmond opts to wait for another two to three years.

Yesterday, Davidson made it clear that Cameron was not her “boss”, saying that when he came to Scotland they would be “colleagues” – reflecting the creation of a Scottish Conservative leader’s job with full authority over affairs north of the Border.

She attempted to make peace with her rival, former deputy leader Murdo Fraser, who had used the leadership campaign to call for the party to be scrapped and reformed, saying they had spoken “at length” about the future.

Yesterday, she played down the rift between her and the three other candidates – Fraser, Margaret Mitchell and Jackson Carlaw – during the campaign.

She said: “They are not my opponents, they are my colleagues. This leadership campaign was enriched by their passion, energy and ideas.” But that came amid growing speculation in the party of a “clear-out” of MSPs who backed plans by Fraser to rebrand the party.

One party figure, not in Davidson’s team, said Fraser’s supporters were “doomed”. Her victory over Fraser came after a ballot of the party membership. But the new leader dismissed suggestions that she would face opposition from the party at Holyrood, after nearly half the Tory MSPs backed Fraser.

Meanwhile, the party’s head of media, Ramsay Jones, who was suspended during the campaign amid claims of bias towards Davidson, was reinstated yesterday. A source close to Davidson said:”An internal investigation has cleared Ramsay and he will be returning to work shortly.” David Mundell, the party’s sole MP in Scotland, was made party chairman.

In her article for Scotland on Sunday, Davidson warns the Scottish party that it faces a period of “painful” and “radical” change, which is needed to transform it into a political “fighting force”.

She also calls for the party to break out of its few traditional areas in Scotland, saying it must champion social justice. “The test of our policies will be to ensure they always help the weakest in society as much as the strongest,” she writes.

She goes on: “We must also realise our own potential and that involves change – real, radical and meaningful change. Change is not always easy and sometimes it can be painful. But the willingness of the party to step up to the plate has already become clear by the faith they have placed in me.”