Sophy Ridge on Sunday Interview with Ruth Davidson MSP, Leader of the Scottish Conservatives, 28.05.17

ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO SOPHY RIDGE ON SUNDAY, SKY NEWS

SOPHY RIDGE: Our first guest is Ruth Davidson who is the Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, thank you very much for being with us. It feels like we should start with that terror attack in Manchester, the appalling terror attack.

RUTH DAVIDSON: I think what’s so shocking about it was the intended target. Acts of terror are designed to strike fear into people and to leave people feeling vulnerable but to actively go after teenage, even younger than teenage girls, who are having a night out, possibly having the first time they have been to a big gig in their life and that sense of hope and expectation, to have that so cruelly ripped apart is just unconscionable. It seems almost inhuman.

SR: And do you think that was a deliberate attempt then to attack teenage girls?

RUTH DAVIDSON: I absolutely think that it was an attack on what it is about our country that this ideology doesn’t like and that’s about freedom and it’s absolutely out the liberation of young women and it’s about democracy and it’s about all of the things that we hold dear and yes, it’s about things like having fun and the idea that that’s not sinful is absolutely part of this attack. Yes, it was absolutely right that we suspended campaigning for a period until we found out what was going on and we have had a proper sense of grievance and mourning and respect for what has happened and every part of the country was touched, there was a small island community in Scotland who lost one of their own in that attack in Manchester too but it’s also right that we come back and we show people absolutely what you said, that you don’t win, that we do have freedom, that we do have democracy, that we do teach our girls that they can go on and they can be anything. They can lead political parties, as you will see in Scotland, that they absolutely have the freedom to do whatever they want to do and that some sad cowardly sick man is not going to stop us.

SR: Some of the inquisition if you like has begun already. Jeremy Corbyn made a speech saying UK foreign policy in places like Libya and Iraq was at least partly in [inaudible] of what happened. You were someone who marched against the Iraq war, do you think that UK foreign policy has made this sort of attack more likely?

RUTH DAVIDSON: I think it’s very complex but I do think that Jeremy Corbyn’s speech was far too simplistic. We have seen terror attacks in places like Belgium, we’ve seen them in places like Sweden, countries that are neutral, that haven’t been involved in this, the idea …

SR: But you could argue that UK foreign policy has destabled both regions which has allowed …

RUTH DAVIDSON: We heard directly from ISIS themselves of what they said was behind this attack and they said it was an attack not primarily because of our foreign policy but it was an attack because we are Western, it was because we weren’t Islamic, it was because we were non-believers. It was also a cowardly attack so yes, we can discuss foreign policy but myself, I believe that the UK works hard to shoulder its burden in the world. I have seen people from my home town out in places like Kosovo defending different ethnic groups from each other, irrespective, completely religion blind and I have seen that with my own eyes when I was a journalist and I was out there myself. So I know that the UK is a force for good in the world and I absolutely take my hat off to the men and women who wear the uniform, who do go overseas, who do try to protect the populous, who do try to nation build and try to make us a safer world rather than one that’s more complex and more dangerous.

SR: Talking about people who are trying to keep people safe, the police are another example of that and since the Conservatives came to power the number of police officers is down by nearly 20,000. Looking back, was that a mistake?

RUTH DAVIDSON: Well we also see that crime is down to a 40 year low and you have also seen that counter-terrorism budgets have been protected and will rise to £2 billion by 2020 because more money has been put into things like the security services MI5 and …

SR: But police officers matter as well don’t they? Making people feel they are safe in the community

RUTH DAVIDSON: Absolutely, absolutely and I think the work that they have done and the ability to deploy on that terrible night, to see the number that were on the ground surrounding the MEN Arena was an absolute testament to their deployability, to their flexibility, to the work that they do, to their professionalism but yes, there has been a reprofiling of the police service in England and Wales, we’ve seen seeing during that reprofiling crime fall to a 40 year low and we’ve seen counter-terrorism budgets protected.

SR: But at the same time you can look at Manchester for example, the police force there has seen cuts of 20%. You are asking these people to keep us safe but you are basically tying their hands behind their back.

RUTH DAVIDSON: Or investing in intelligence, we’re investing in close co-operation across agencies, the commanders on the ground were able to get people where they were needed and let’s not scare the audience here, the amount of terrorist attacks that have been foiled due to close co-operation, yes with police but also through our intelligence agencies and the ability of these professionals to keep us safe, I think we should recognise.

SR: Let’s turn to the Conservative party manifesto now shall we, what we were talking about before that Manchester terror attack. It’s been a bit of a wobbly time for your party, the IFF, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the revered institution that looks at these things, weren’t too impressed by everything that was in that manifesto. They say that you’re not being honest with voters and that your planned spending cuts could seriously damage public services.

RUTH DAVIDSON: Maybe I’m just getting a bit long in the tooth, I’ve been doing this job for five and a half years now Sophy and I remember before the 2010 General Election all of these experts saying that the Conservative party policy would mean that there was going to be four million, five million more unemployed and actually there’s been a jobs revolution, we’ve seen more than two million more into work …

SR: Yes that’s partly because the Lib Dems fought for that in coalition.

RUTH DAVIDSON: I don’t think so! I think in terms of the work that’s carried on since the Lib Dems left coalition, we’ve seen that the increase in employment has continued but people like Danny Blanchflower and other experts that sit on economic committees, yes, projections are all fine and good but look at our record. We’ve got more people into work, we’ve got more people out of poverty, we’ve cut pensioner poverty, we’ve increased pensions across the piece, we’ve kept our country safe …

SR: But it’s about the manifesto plans though, not your record, isn’t it, that they’re looking at?

RUTH DAVIDSON: Absolutely but I think that you can’t say when people go to the polls they don’t look at the record of the incumbent government and I think if you look at the Conservative party’s record we have taken a broken welfare system and have made work pay, we’ve taken high levels of unemployment and during even a financial crisis we have got record numbers of people into work, record numbers of women into work and we want to carry on that work.

SR: Perhaps one of the few people who seem to like your manifesto less and less is Theresa May, she U-turned on one of the flagship policies on social care. I mean that’s not really an example of a strong and stable government in waiting is it?

RUTH DAVIDSON: I think she has tried to grasp the nettle of something that’s very difficult and very complex. Social care is a complex issue and making sure that people have the right level of care as we get older is difficult. I have to say, just to explain to people watching at home that we have a totally different system in Scotland so the policies that were in the manifesto in England and Wales, the Conservative policy, isn’t my policy, isn’t what’s going to happen in Scotland, it isn’t what currently happens in Scotland. However there are greater protections there so for example having a protection for £100,000 of your income, your cumulative wealth, isn’t there in Scotland, there’s only £26,500 so we’ve got different systems across Scotland and England and Wales and there are different ways in which that apples.

SR: I’m interested as well actually in the differences in Scotland and UK because another thing that isn’t going to happen in Scotland is these cuts to winter fuel allowances which seem to have your fingerprints all over it. If you think Theresa May is doing something wrong do you just tell her, do you have that relationship?

RUTH DAVIDSON: Yes! I have that relationship with all my colleagues, I’m sure they’d quite often rather I didn’t tell them but this is a devolved issue, this is something we have control of in Scotland and my colleagues down south decided, and it is absolutely right and proper that they should, that they would means test winter fuel payments …

SR: So you think it is right and proper in the rest of the UK but not in Scotland?

RUTH DAVIDSON: It is their choice to means test winter fuel payments and any money that’s saved to reinvest in social care so there is no net loss in England to money, it is just being used somewhere else. In Scotland we are not allocating extra money in that sense to social care but we are keeping the winter fuel payment without means test and that’s what devolution is designed to do, it is so that you can take different choices but there is no net loss of investment in England and no net gain in Scotland, it’s just within the envelope we’re making different choices and that’s exactly what devolution is designed to do. I choose to make sure that every pensioner in Scotland gets a winter fuel payment irrespective of their income or their accumulated wealth.

SR: So have you got any examples then of when you told Theresa May she’s got it wrong?

RUTH DAVIDSON: Absolutely but I’m not telling you on telly. That’s exactly what conversations in Number 10 are about.

SR: Okay. Now there has been a wobble in the Conservative campaign, the polls do look as though they are getting closer than some people thought, perhaps even Theresa May when she called the election hoping to get a stonking great majority and for it to be a complete walkover.

RUTH DAVIDSON: I’m not sure anyone thinks any election is a walkover if I’m honest but carry on with your question.

SR: A poll out last night seems to suggest that the more people see of Theresa May the less they actually like what she’s doing. I mean in the last two weeks her ratings are down on the question of whose best to look after working families, whose most likely to raise school standards, who will improve the NHS, who will get the best Brexit deal, why is it that Theresa May seems to be getting less popular as the campaign is going on?

RUTH DAVIDSON: There was one question that was asked that you didn’t include in that list there and it’s who is better to be Prime Minister of this country, Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn, and what is it? A 20 something point gap.

SR: But I’m interested in the movements in the polls.

RUTH DAVIDSON: But look, again as a veteran of now six Scottish or UK wide elections and two referenda, the narrowing of the polls always happens at around this time and then it focuses people’s minds and people at home will be thinking actually in two weeks’ time Jeremy Corbyn could be in charge of the country, Diane Abbott could be the Home Secretary in charge with keeping us safe, John McDonnell could be in charge of your pay packet.

SR: And Theresa May could be Prime Minister and by the look of this people are getting a bit wary about that.

RUTH DAVIDSON: Sophy, Theresa May is Prime Minister. I hope she continues as Prime Minister. In three weeks’ time the first day of negotiations for Brexit are going to happen and they will either be led by Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn and I absolutely, seven days a week and twice on a Sunday, think Theresa May is the best person in that job.

SR: It’s interesting that you say about the Brexit idea because there have been some reports in the paper that there’s going to be a refocusing of the Conservative campaign to make it more about Brexit, do you think that is the issue that you should be fighting on?

RUTH DAVIDSON: I think there is a big issue that’s happening. It’s not going to be easy, the Brexit negotiations, but it absolutely requires the right people to take us in there because the difference between a good deal and a bad deal will affect all of us in this country. Now I actually don’t know what Jeremy Corbyn’s priorities for Brexit are, I’ve never heard him stand up in a speech and read them out, I’ve never heard him say what it is he wants to pursue. He could be in Prime Minister in two weeks’ time and I don't know what he’d do in Brexit and neither does the country. In Scotland it is almost a wholly different election because the big issue here, yes of course getting the right Brexit deal is part of it but in terms of unions and leaving them, the big issue here is the fact that the SNP want to rip Scotland out of the UK altogether and if you are talking about Brexit, having bits of the UK and nations within the UK fighting against each other is not going to help us get that good deal.

SR: Okay, Ruth Davidson, thank you very much for your time today.