THE Scottish Conservatives will today present themselves as a party rooted in Scotland and addressing bread and butter issues facing the country as they seek to win new support ahead of the General Election.
Leader Ruth Davidson will use a speech to the party's spring conference to unveil proposals to give parents more control over their children's education and pre-school care.
It follows a party political broadcast in which she spoke about her own school in Buckhaven, Fife.
Ms Davidson was also filmed visiting her parents and having a drink in her old local pub in Lower Largo with her partner, Jen Wilson, in a series of everyday scenes Tory strategists hope will change the party's elitist image.
Unusually, excerpts from Prime Minister David Cameron's speech to the Tory conference were not issued to the media in advance last night, ensuring the focus remained on the Scots leader.
The Scots Tories believe Ms Davidson and her ordinary, middle class background will chime more with voters than Mr Cameron, whose Eton education stands in marked contrast to her comprehensive schooling.
The view is borne out by polls showing the Prime Minister has a lower approval rating in Scotland than down south.
Ms Davidson will call for reforms to the Scottish education system as she extols the need for greater "parent power".
She will take up the cause of parents in Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire, who are campaigning to be given control over closure-threatened St Joseph's Primary School.
Praising the parents as "bursting with ideas, ambitious and dedicated," she will accuse First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of opposing the removal of schools from local authority control for "ideological" reasons.
She will say: "We back a new parent power law so that if they want to take their school out of local authority control, then they can do so.
"This model is already up and running of course, at Jordanhill school in Glasgow.
"For 27 years it has been operating on this model and it doesn't look like a crippling failure to me.
"Rather people pay a premium on houses in its catchment area just to send their children there."
She will add: "More choice for parents, more power in the hands of people: these are the Conservative priorities."
Ms Davidson will also unveil proposals for a new "childcare credit" allowing parents to access free nursery care at a council-run or private nursery or with a registered childminder.
The plan comes after Ms Sturgeon faced pressure at Holyrood yesterday (thur) over claims working families were unable to access the 600 hours of free care to which all three and four-year-olds are entitled.
She will say: "The plan is simple and straightforward: the government guarantees the number of hours of nursery care you are entitled to without fee, and you choose who delivers it, and when.
"It would be a far-reaching reform that could help transform the lives of thousands of hard-pressed Scottish families."
The calls follow a string of Conservative policy initiatives on issues the party believes are of more importance to voters than discussion of further powers for Holyrood.
The Scots Tories have called for changes to the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, the replacement for Stamp Duty coming into force in April, to ease the burden on people buying mid-market and luxury homes.
They have also led calls for the ban on alcohol at football matches to be lifted and campaigned for the automatic early release of prisoners to be ended.
The latest Survation poll has put support for the Conservatives on 15 per cent in Scotland, on course to keep their solitary seat north of the Border, held by Scotland Office minister David Mundell.
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