TORY party members have delivered a devastating verdict on Ruth Davidson’s leadership.
In a monthly survey carried out by the Conservative Home website, Davidson is now the least popular of all the party’s frontline politicians.
For most of her time in charge she’s been near the top of the site’s Cabinet league table, based on net satisfaction ratings, but in the most recent edition, she has fallen from fifth to 35th place. Sajid Javid, made Chancellor last week, is at the top of the table.
However most of the top half is dominated by Leave supporters. Boris Johnson is in second, with Jacob Rees-Mogg taking third place.
It’s been a tricky few weeks for Davidson. She very publicly called on Johnson to keep David Mundell as Secretary of State for Scotland, and she was very publicly snubbed by the new Prime Minister who replaced the veteran MP with relative rookie, Alister Jack.
To compound the slight, Downing Street then appointed Worcester MP Robin Walker to the Scotland Office.
Though well liked, he was chosen over 11 other Scottish Tory MPs, and was the first English MP to be appointed to the Scotland Office since 1886. However, it’s likely the fall in support is down to a column in last week’s Mail on Sunday when the Scottish Tory Party leader ruled out supporting a No-Deal Brexit.
Davidson wrote: “When I was debating against the pro-Brexit side in 2016, I don’t remember anybody saying we should crash out of the EU with no arrangements in place to help maintain the vital trade that flows uninterrupted between Britain and the European Union.
“I don’t think the Government should pursue a No-Deal Brexit and, if it comes to it, I won’t support it.”
Johnson has repeatedly committed his Government to taking the UK out of the EU on October 31, “do or die”.
SNP MP Pete Wishart tweeted: “She was ‘the future’ once you know ... Now she’s less popular amongst Tories than the anonymous Alister Jack and someone called ‘Baroness Evans’. “
There are signs Davidson’s authority within Holyrood is crumbling too.
In her column last week Davidson said she was “irked” by newspaper stories “floating the idea of a separate Scottish Conservative Party”. “Not on my watch” she insisted.
Just days later, the Scottish Tory’s Shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser – who challenged Davidson for the leadership in 2011 – called for the party to adopt a “Canadian model” to allow a separate centre-right party to contest Holyrood elections.
He said: “Quebec Conservatives vote for the Quebec Liberal Party, which despite its name has been independent of the Canadian Liberals — the party of Justin Trudeau — since 1955, and sits somewhat to their right on economic issues.”
Fraser said that his call was not a “daft, ridiculous, knee-jerk response” to Johnson but a look ahead to the “key battleground” Scottish Parliament election in 2021. “A victory for the SNP with a majority of seats at Holyrood for pro-independence parties will lead to them claiming a mandate for a second referendum,” he said.
“The priority for Unionists, of all parties, must be to defeat them in that objective.”
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