Ruth Davidson has made her pitch to be Scotland’s next first minister – pledging to bring about a “blue collar revolution” that would get the country “on the right track”.
Despite the next Holyrood elections being two years away in May 2021, the Scottish Tory leader said the choice voters would face then would be between another SNP government led by Nicola Sturgeon “banging on about independence” and a Conservative administration that would offer a “brighter horizon”.
Ms Davidson pledged a new approach to vocational education and plans to ensure teenagers stay in education until at least 18 – or otherwise take up a “structured apprenticeship” or training place if they want to go in work.
LISTEN: Ruth Davidson caught on 'hot mic' at Tory conference
She also said the “greatest service we can do to our nation” would be “bringing down the curtain on 14 of SNP grudge and grievance”.
Closing the Scottish Conservative conference in Aberdeen, Ms Davidson said: “As first minister, I won’t use every engagement with the UK Government as a chance to sow division. I’ll use it as a chance to deliver better government for the people who live here.
“And I’ll make a firm guarantee now: If I am elected Scotland’s next first minister, there will be no more constitutional games and no more referenda. We’ve had enough to last a lifetime.”
We can't see the potential of another generation go unfulfilled.
These are the people who should demand our attention.#SCC19 pic.twitter.com/e2eqkENrAv
— ScotConservatives (@ScotTories) May 4, 2019
The speech marked her return to frontline politics after going on maternity leave.
Kevin Mackenna: Ruth Davidson is back with the same stale anti-independence message
She told Tory party activists: “I’m back because I want to put Scotland’s constitutional division aside, to allow the country to come back together again.
“I want us to become the largest party in 2021 so we can see all the effort and hours and manpower the current nationalist administration puts into Indyref2 being put into improving our schools, growing our economy and supporting our services.
“I’m back because I want us to build a better Scotland – right here, right now.
“That election is still two years away but today it’s time we fire the starting gun on the campaign.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel