RUTH Davidson has pitched herself as the next First Minister as she said that the Scottish Conservatives must use the next five years to present themselves as Scotland’s alternative government in waiting.
The party leader told a fringe meeting at conference that when she took over in 2011 she set herself a 10-year plan; the first part of which, to bring through a new generation of Scottish Tories and become the official opposition at Holyrood, had been realised.
“What I have to do in the next five years, in the second half of that plan, is start to lay out how we can look like a government-in-waiting. I fully accept we are not there yet. We have only now got to the point where we can be that strong opposition,” explained the Edinburgh MSP.
But she said the new intake and those who had returned to Holyrood had real ability and as they gained confidence voters would see a “real alternative policy platform that we can take to the people of Scotland and show them there is another way”.
Asked about her 10-year plan ending with herself as FM, the 37-year-old politician replied: “Anybody would be in the wrong job if they were leading a political party in a legislature and they did not wish to be the party of government in that legislature. Of course, that’s the end game.”
She added: “Just as it was fanciful five years ago to say we could overtake Labour and become the main party of opposition, I understand there’s a lot of work I have to do to be able to make what is a strong opposition party now...to be an alternative party of government...
“I want us in five years’ time to absolutely look like an alternative party of government and an attractive one at that and that’s the job I will apply my team to and myself to and that’s the task we face and we will do it.”
Much of Ms Davidson’s speech at the fringe concerned an attack on Nicola Sturgeon and the Nationalists for obsessing over independence and a second referendum when ordinary Scots wanted them to get on with the day job.
She urged the FM to "pick up the phone" rather than "picking fights" with the UK Government over Brexit.
Ms Davidson claimed the SNP leader was pursuing the wrong approach by reaching for "Salmond's greatest hits from her CD collection".
The Scottish Tory leader stressed how there was a need to show Scotland was "open for business" and to organise meetings with European leaders to push the country's interests.
Ms Davidson renewed calls for the Scottish Government to scrap its controversial named-person scheme. The SNP administration should instead prioritise targeted support for families who were struggling to cope.
She also proposed the SNP administration designate struggling areas of Scotland as “turnaround zones,” which could receive special tax breaks, faster planning, streamlined regulation and dedicated support for those businesses which set up there.
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