RUTH Davidson was today told to "come off it" after claiming that she was not involved in the Scottish Conservative election campaign, despite her appearing on the front of many of their leaflets.
Davidson, who chose to join the House of Lords rather than run for re-election, also fronted the party political broadcast (PPB) put out by the Scottish Tories, in place of leader Douglas Ross.
Speaking on the BBC earlier today alongside the SNP’s Michael Russell, Davidson claimed that the campaign had been run by Ross and that she was not involved.
She said: “We have to get past constitutional politics in Scotland. We have to focus on the recovery, and absolutely everything that Douglas put together as part of his campaign, you know I wasn’t part of the campaign team, I wasn’t part of the planners. This was his campaign ...”
READ MORE: Scottish Tories didn't focus on indyref2 in election campaign, Douglas Ross says
At this point the host and SNP president Russell both began to speak, with Russell urging Davidson to “come off it”.
The BBC host said that Davidson had been “front and centre” of the campaign.
Russell could be seen laughing as he said: “You were leading it."
Earlier in the interview, Davidson had said that “we [the Scottish Tories] very much ran a peach list focused campaign”.
Douglas Ross and Ruth Davidson on one of the many photocalls they held together during the Tory election campaign
Speaking in early April, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said that Davidson “rightly plays a key role in our campaign going forward”.
He said that the outgoing MSP was “a strong, integral part” of his campaign team.
Davidson played such a prominent role in the campaign that the SNP claimed Ross had been “dropped to the subs bench”.
Read Ruth Davidson's open letter to all pro-UK voters ahead of tomorrow's election 👇#PeachVoteTory pic.twitter.com/4TwTewPFga
— Scottish Conservatives (@ScotTories) May 5, 2021
It was her who signed a letter sent to thousands of households across Scotland in the build up to the election urging them to vote Scottish Conservative with their list vote.
READ MORE: Douglas Ross denies he is being sidelined in favour of Ruth Davidson
SNP depute leader Keith Brown, who retained his Clackmannanshire and Dunblane constituency in this election with an increased majority, said in April: “[Ross] is used to being on the side-lines in his refereeing career, but now he’s there in his political career too – if the situation was so ‘mission-critical’, why is he not the man in the middle?
“It is desperation from the Tories that the only option they have left is to wheel out Baroness Davidson before she skulks off to her £300-a-day job in the unelected House of Lords – she is the democracy denier in chief.”
Speaking on the BBC today, Davidson also claimed that the results in Glasgow Southside, which saw Nicola Sturgeon win but Anas Sarwar increase the Labour vote from 5694 in 2016 to 10,279, showed that Unionists had been voting tactically.
However, Sturgeon’s vote share decreased by just 1.2%. She won a commanding 60.2% of the vote in her constituency, down from 61.4% in 2016.
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