Former Scottish Tory leader urges party to ‘get decision right’ on new leader

The Conservatives must take time to “get this decision right” when choosing their new leader, Baroness Ruth Davidson has said.

The former Scottish Tory leader also told her party that whoever succeeds Rishi Sunak must be given time in the role, stressing that “chopping and changing” leaders, as the party has done, makes it look “increasingly chaotic and rudderless”.

Writing in The Sunday Times Scotland in the wake of the “General Election rout”, Baroness Davidson said the defeat her party suffered had been “years in the making and was handed out by voters who wanted to see us punished”.

In the wake of that, she said the remaining Conservative MPs would need to “adjust to being in opposition and understanding what rebuilding entails”.

Baroness Davidson was at one point tipped as a future UK Tory leader after her success in reviving the party’s fortunes in Scotland, but quit as Scottish Conservative leader in 2019.

She said: “Rebuilding in opposition is something I have a bit of experience of, and from a lower base than the UK party is facing now.

“When I became the Scottish Conservative leader in 2011, I inherited a party that had gone from pity to outright scorn.”

But she said her time in charge the Scottish Tories “more than doubled what we had” in Westminster, Holyrood and Scottish council elections, with this “showing the improvement was real and solid, not a one-off lucky hit”.

Baroness Davidson is credited with reviving the Tories north of the border during her time as Scottish Conservative leader (Jane Barlow/PA) PA Media

Now she said the UK Conservative Party “has a little under five years to get itself together to try and bounce back from the worst electoral drubbing in its 190-year history”.

However she warned Tories that this would would take time, stating: “There is no point getting frustrated if a new leader doesn’t reverse a poll lead overnight.”

Recalling the party’s repeated changes in leadership in recent years which saw Mr Sunak take over after a brief period in charge for Liz Truss, who herself succeeded Boris Johnson, Baroness Davidson said: “Chopping and changing five leaders in eight years did nothing for our fortunes, it just made us look increasingly chaotic and rudderless.

“If we look at party leaders who successfully changed the government, (Tony) Blair was leader of the opposition for three years, both Margaret Thatcher and (Sir Keir) Starmer had four years to establish themselves while (David) Cameron spent five years building up his profile and the party’s standing before transplanting Labour.”

She added: “After a defeat as heavy as the one we just suffered, it would be easy to form a counsel of despair or to be too shellshocked to take the correct decisions and lay the building blocks for future success.”

Rishi Sunak is to step down as Tory leader in the wake of the party’s General Election defeat, but will stay in post until a successor is found. (James Manning/PA) PA Media

Baroness Davidson praised Mr Sunak for having vowed to stay on as party leader while Tories hunt for his successor.

The new leader must be someone with the “ability to talk over the heads of the party and to the country at large” and with “broad appeal” so they can “win votes back from other parties,” she argued.

But the former Scottish Tory leader stressed: “We should take our time and get this decision right.

“The last time Labour formed a government, it was in office for 13 years.

“For those of us who believe in Conservative values, in sound money, in the Union, in working with our friends and allies to increase trade and to shoulder our security burden in the world, it is incumbent on us to get ourselves together and make sure it doesn’t take so long next time.”