RUTH Davidson is leaving behind a “litany of failures” as she departs for the House of Lords, according to the SNP.
The Scottish Tory Holyrood leader is giving up her seat to take up a peerage at Westminster, prompting her opponents to claim she has “let down the people of Scotland at every turn”.
The SNP have noted a series of instances in which they say Davidson has betrayed Scottish voters, including her decision to back the two-child cap and rape clause, as well as failing to stand up for Scots after the Brexit referendum.
The former Tory leader voted against mitigating the bedroom tax and free prescription charges. She is accused of opposing an extension to the Universal Credit uplift and refusing to protect Scotland’s NHS from a US trade deal.
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Jenny Gilruth, SNP candidate for Mid Fife and Glenrothes, argued Davidson failed to separate herself from the cruel Tory government in Westminster.
“Ruth Davidson’s time with Boris Johnson’s Tories has been defined by a litany of U-turns and failures. She will leave those in her wake as she heads off for the unelected, undemocratic and unaccountable House of Lords.
“For the entirety of the 10 years she has been in the Scottish Parliament she has let down the people of Scotland at every turn, from prescriptions charges to dragging Scotland out of the EU.
“Ruth Davidson was presented as a change from the Tories of old, but in reality, she was just another representative in Scotland of a Westminster Tory establishment that all too often lived up to its tag of the ‘Nasty Party’, by failing the most vulnerable in our society. She supported the dreadful bedroom tax, opposed an extension to the uplift to Universal Credit and backed the abhorrent rape clause and two-child cap.”
Gilruth went on to condemn the Scottish Tory over her role in Brexit, which she had campaigned vociferously against ahead of the referendum.
The SNP candidate added: “Scotland’s exit from the EU has demonstrated how Ruth Davidson and the rest of the Scottish Tories are inept at standing up to Boris Johnson as they were posted missing when Scotland’s fishing, food industry and exporters were sold down the river and have had their industries devastated as a result of the hardest of Tory Brexits.”
“At this election, which Ruth Davidson is ducking out of, the people of Scotland will have a choice, to put their future in their own hands with a post-pandemic referendum or into the hands of Boris Johnson.”
Nicola Sturgeon has repeatedly taken aim at Davidson over he decision to accept a peerage, including in a heated exchange in what is likely to be their last ever Holyrood debate.
In the final session of the Scottish Parliament before recess, the First Minister said: “So in the next parliament I hope to be standing here but that’s up to the Scottish people.
“But while Ruth Davidson is off for taking £300 a day to sit in the unelected House of Lords, those in this chamber will be getting on with the job of improving education for all.”
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The exchange prompted an intervention from outgoing Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh.
He stated: “I appreciate this is a political exchange and I always allow some latitude.
“But the First Minister has twice mentioned the House of Lords and I get it and I do understand it.
“However the point has been made I’d rather it wasn’t so personal.”
Davidson told Macintosh that his comments were “gallant, but not required.”
Sturgeon said she “genuinely wishes [Davidson] well”, adding: “I hope she has a happy time.”
The Scottish Tories dismissed the SNP’s allegations about Davidson.
A spokesman said: "We are the only party with the strength and determination across Scotland to stand up the sleaze-infested SNP and block their damaging obsession of inflicting another divisive referendum on Scots."
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