Tom Gordon
Scottish Political Editor
RUTH Davidson has said she is "sick and tired" of the Conservatives "continually underperforming in Scotland" and has set the party four key tests for May 7.
The Scottish Tory leader said she wanted to win at least one more MP and overtake the LibDems in terms of votes to come third overall in Scotland.
"I don't want to settle for mediocrity in this party," she said.
Elected Scots leader just six months after first becoming an MSP in 2011, Davidson was also scathing about Tory strategy at the last general election.
Being too gung-ho "damaged the credibility of the party", she said.
In 2010, the Scottish Tories talked up their chances in 11 target seats, but won just one of them, the Borders seat they already held going into the election.
Instead of repeating that high-profile mistake, Davidson said the party was now campaigning "under the radar", drawing on 80,000 new contacts made through its Conservatives Friends of the Union campaign during the referendum.
She the LibDem collapse was sending voters her way, while 'Tartan Tories' who previously supported the SNP had also "come home to us".
She said: "This is a more professional campaign than any you've seen from the Scottish Conservatives in the last 15, 20 years and there's a reason for that - I'm sick and tired of us continually underperforming in Scotland.
"I think you'll find we manage to surprise some people in this election."
She predicted the party would get around 500,000 votes, up a quarter on 2010.
She said: "I want to see an improvement in vote, in vote share and seats and our ranking. We came fourth [in 2010], we had 412,000 votes, we had one seat, and we had 16.7 per cent [vote share].
"These are four measures of an election and I want to see an improvement in each of these four measures. I'm ambitious for this party. I want us to do well. So if we don't increase all four of these, personally I'll be very very disappointed."
The LibDems said: "The Conservatives are not at the races in this campaign. They talk about the Union but their strategy indicates they are putting their party before their country. Ruth Davidson's attempt to talk herself up has already been fatally undermined by senior UK Tories who said their focus is on 23 marginals in England."
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