SCOTTISH Conservative leader Ruth Davidson joked with David Cameron’s communications director that she was a “shovel-faced lesbian” ahead of a key TV debate in the run up to the EU referendum.
The former prime minister’s aide, Sir Craig Oliver, disclosed details of the jokey response from Ms Davidson. He had called her ahead of the event as polling day neared on June 23, at which Boris Johnson, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and others also appeared.
She responded with the “lesbian” claim after he told her that he was considering running Angela Eagle alongside her for the pro-EU side. He wrote in his new book on the EU vote: “I call Ruth Davidson to say we spotted how well she did in the Scottish debates and we need her to do the massive Wembley Arena debate.
Read more: Kezia Dugdale accuses Jeremy Corbyn of trying to undermine her
“She’s immediately up for it. When I tell her Angela Eagle is also being considered, she gets straight to the point: ‘Angela and I are very similar. Are you sure you want two shovel-faced lesbians?”
“Ruth says I responded like an embarrassed Hugh Grant, muttering and bumbling.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel