'Total b******s': Allies of Ruth Davidson deny she could take peerage to gain Cabinet place

Allies of Ruth Davidson have denied claims that she could enter the House of Lords as a way of joining Theresa May's government.



According to The Sun, the Scottish Tory leader could accept a peerage next year and become a minister as a stepping stone to mounting a leadership bid in the future.

The paper said she had told been told by senior Conservatives that she needed to show she can do a senior job at Westminster to prove she has what it takes to be Prime Minister.

A friend of Ms Davidson - who is due to give birth to her first baby later this year - told the paper: "Ruth told me that she is having a rethink about the next few years.

"It’s dawning on her that she needs to prove she can run something bigger than just the Scottish Tory party to show members she would be good leader of the party and the country.

"You can renounce peerages these days, so that’s how she’d do it as a stop gap before fighting a Westminster seat at the next general election, whenever it comes."

But a source close to Ms Davidson told PoliticsHome that she had no plans to move to London before the next Holyrood elections in 2021.

The source said "This is total b*llocks. The only plan Ruth is working towards is having a happy, healthy baby, getting back to work then turfing Nicola Sturgeon out of Bute House."

Earlier this year, The Sun reported that senior Conservative figures were plotting to install Michael Gove in Number 10 as a caretaker Prime Minister, with Ruth Davidson stepping up to take on the top job in 2021.

One former Cabinet minister told said Ms Davidson - who has overseen a turnaround in the Scottish Conservatives' fortunes - was "the messiah".

Speaking in May, Ms Davidson said: "Sometimes as Tories we just look a bit dour.

"We look a bit joyless, a bit authoritarian sometimes. We don’t get to win if we start hectoring the people we need to vote for us."