Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tories still struggling to fill hole left by Ruth Davidson

(Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has barely been seen in public without his chaperone, Ruth Davidson. She has accompanied him around the Holyrood elections campaign trail with such devotion that it’s unclear who is standing for election and who is the actual party leader.

The pair are campaigning in Edinburgh today and have sent out these letters – pictured below – to pro-Union voters. They have also launched an ad van and starred in a party political broadcast together. Perhaps ‘starred’ is an exaggeration for Ross, who played more of a cameo role in the PPB last month, with Davidson taking the limelight.

Douglas Ross has struggled to have any kind of breakthrough moment in this campaign.

Davidson is, in case you are understandably confused, not standing for election and will shortly take up her seat in the House of Lords. Neither is she the leader of the Scottish Conservatives: she stood down in 2019 because she wanted to spend more time with her young son.

Isabel Hardman
Written by
Isabel Hardman
Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.

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