ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now the Conservatives won their lowest share of the vote in Scotland for half a century in last month’s general election, the party holds just one seat out of 59 north of the border but that doesn’t seem to have stopped their leader there, Ruth Davidson, who has been described as a rising star in the Conservative ranks and she joins me now from Edinburgh and a very good morning to you,  Ms Davidson.  

RUTH DAVIDSON: A very good morning to you, Dermot, happy Father’s Day.  

DM: Good to talk to you but how do you think the Conservatives can stop being an irrelevance in Scotland?  

RUTH DAVIDSON: Well we had more than 434,000 back us at the election just there, we know that between a fifth and a quarter of our natural supporters voted tactically in what was one of the strangest, I think most overwhelming elections we’ve ever seen north of the border, it was an absolute tsunami.  I think when the Labour party and the Liberal Democrats between them lost over 30% of the popular vote and we held just about steady in the face of that tsunami, we can out relatively creditably but I’m building a big tent party here, a party which speaks to a wide array of people in Scotland, a party that’s got its confidence back. You see in Scotland right now absolutely since May 7th a lot of the attention has been on the SNP, they got 1.4 million votes and that is a remarkable achievement but that was significantly less than the 2 million people just a few months ago that voted to stay part of our United Kingdom and tomorrow I’m in London giving a lecture on what we can do to make sure that I am the spokesperson for those two million and that I stand up for those people in Scotland who do believe that our future is part of the United Kingdom that we’ve built and that wants to be the pro-UK alternative to the SNP here in Scotland.  

DM: Nevertheless the facts speak for themselves about that vote share, I hear what you actually about the number of votes in the general election but you have got just over, just over 10% of MSPs in the Scottish parliament as well.  Isn’t there a sense that you’re flogging a dead horse here, with your own background – you’re not posh, you’re not English, yet still no traction for the Conservatives.

RUTH DAVIDSON: [Laughs]  I think this party is much more than me as an individual but I am proud and honoured to lead this party at this time, a remarkable time in Scottish politics and I do think that I can use my background to increase our appeal across Scotland.  I think we are going to surprise a few people in May of next year, we are putting together a comprehensive manifesto that talks to the people of this country about the responsibilities that this parliament is about to have, how we can use that, how we can stand up for people, get a good deal from their taxes, increase choice within education.  In Scotland right now we have got an education system where there are a number of teachers doing excellent work but the results of our pupils are falling, we have got standards that are stalling, we have a government here who has presided over more than 200 weeks of missed A&E targets because they are not concentrating on health.  The conversation that we had about the constitution has been a wonderfully vibrant one and one that we needed to have but it has knocked everything else onto the back pages and the SNP have had an easy ride on their record.  Not any longer.  I’ll be focusing very clearly on what we can do as a country to have an aspirational future for our children, realise that there are opportunities out there for them and those opportunities are increased by being part of a United Kingdom that we’ve built, part of a G7 nation that is one of the world leaders.   

DM: But do you not feel that that constitutional question is just not going away?  That next year’s Scottish parliamentary elections might well provide a mandate for the SNP to go for another referendum?

RUTH DAVIDSON: Well I think that the echoes of the referendum we’ve just had are echoing loudly across our country.  I said at the time, and I repeat, the question isn’t settled yet.  I think the very worst thing that we could have for Scotland right now is another referendum close by, we’ll see if Nicola Sturgeon will stick to her promise of it being once in a generation but I do feel that we need to analyse why there has been a movement behind the SNP off the back of a referendum which, let’s not forget, they lost and they lost by a significant margin.  Now I think that part of that analysis is because people feel that the SNP stands up for Scotland and that gives a challenge to my party and to others that we can also rise to that challenge, that we can be that voice that speaks up for Scotland but does it by saying that Scotland wants to be a strong part at the heart of our United Kingdom.  

DM: But you know one of the major arguments against the Conservatives in Scotland, and many other parts of the UK of course as well, is this cuts agenda and we’re having it confirmed today it seems that Mr Osborne and Mr Duncan Smith are going to proceed with that 12 billion cut to the welfare budget, that is not going to help your task is it?

RUTH DAVIDSON: If you look at individual policies, for example the benefit cap, that’s more popular in Scotland than it is in the rest of the UK, if you look at the Social Attitudes surveys from several of the polling organisations.  I think what’s clear is that I’ve got to make sure that the message gets out there that this is about transforming lives, it’s about moving people from dependence to independence, of getting them back into the workplace and it is not just about for example stopping unlimited welfare, it is also about making sure that the other half of that equation is fulfilled too, so that’s things like increasing the minimum wage faster than inflation, taking the lowest paid people out of taxation altogether so they are not seeing big chunks of their pay cheque going to the state, making sure that more money is being spent on things like the Work Programme so more support is offered to getting people into the workforce, particularly those that are furthest from it and I absolutely support my colleagues down south in that endeavour of getting more people back to work.  We’ve seen employment in Scotland rocket after the great depression in the same way as it has done in the rest of the UK too.  

DM: Just a quick question, you know what’s being said about you, particularly with your background as I described and your leadership qualities, do you ever fancy leading your colleagues down south in Westminster?

RUTH DAVIDSON: Well look, I’ve got a pretty big job up here, you just outlined the scale of the task that I have to not just get the Scottish Conservative party up the polls but also get more people back into Holyrood, into Westminster, into the European Parliament and I want to make my contribution to the Conservative party, the Conservative and Unionist party, making sure that I supply a few more MPs from Scotland to help the next Conservative government.  

DM: Okay Ms Davidson, thank you very much indeed, Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives there.