Ruth Davidson rules out ever becoming Conservative leader
Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, has ruled herself out of ever making a bid to take the party’s top position, citing concerns about her family and mental health.
Davidson, who is currently pregnant with her first child, told The Sunday Times of how she has been diagnosed with clinical depression aged 18, and had experienced “suicidal thoughts” afterwards. The newspaper reported that Davidson revealed self-harm scars on her arms during the interview.
Asked whether she would like to succeed Theresa May, Davidson said: “You have to want it, and I don’t want to be prime minister… I value my relationship and my mental health too much for it. I will not be a candidate.”
The 39-year-old pushed back against suggestions she is considering moving to becoming a Westminster MP, adding: “the idea that I would have a child in Edinburgh and then immediately go down to London four days a week and leave it up here is offensive, actually offensive to me.”
Read more: Labour will vote against Theresa May's Brexit deal, says Emily Thornberry
Davidson’s declaration will deflate some of the Conservative Party’s moderates, who had seen her as a popular and widely-appealing candidate to take on its top job after May. As leader of the party in Scotland, Davidson achieved a remarkable reversal in its fortunes: taking it from just one seat in 2015, to 13 in last year’s General Election — making it Scotland’s second-largest party by seats.
Speculation about May’s position as prime minister has been rife for almost all of her term, stirred up particularly in recent weeks by growing pressure from the right of the party over her handling of the Brexit negotiations, and widespread suggestions that former foreign secretary and mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is preparing to move against her.
Members of the ultra-pro-Brexit European Research Group (ERG) met last week to discuss a leadership challenge against May, but several key ministers have stood by her, defending her signature Chequers proposals for negotiations with the European Union.
In a new interview with the BBC, set to broadcast tomorrow, May said she gets a “little bit irritated” with constant rumours about her position. She told Panorama: “debate is not about my future. This debate is about the future of the people of the UK and the future of the United Kingdom.”
Elsewhere in the interview, which coincided with the release of extracts from her first memoirs, Davidson – who previously worked for the BBC as a journalist, and served in the Territorial Army – spoke of the pressures of receiving personal abuse, and described herself as “very lucky” for having become pregnant during her first round of IVF treatment.