Ruth Davidson's Conservatives

Examines the startling revival of the Scottish Conservative Party under Ruth Davidson’s leadership

• A very timely retrospective study of the Scottish Conservative Party's revival under Ruth Davidson's leadership (November 2011–August 2019)
• Analyses the Scottish Conservative Party under Ruth Davidson’s in the context of gender and LGBT politics; its relationships with the SNP, Northern Ireland, the Scottish media and the UK Tory Party; and its use of Scottish national identity
• Helps inform Scottish political and academic discourse ahead of the 2021 Holyrood elections

When Ruth Davidson was elected leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party in 2011, it was considered something of a joke: in electoral decline for decades, politically irrelevant and seemingly past the point of no return. But by 2017, ‘Ruth Davidson’s Conservatives’ had become Scotland’s second party at Holyrood and Westminster, and its leader spoken of as a future leader of the UK Conservative Party, if not the next Scottish First Minister. Then, in August 2019, Ruth Davidson resigned.

This book, which brings together leading academics and analysts, examines the extraordinary revival of the Scottish Conservative Party between 2011 and Ruth Davidson’s shock resignation in 2019. Contributors look at the importance of gender and sexuality, the 2014 independence referendum, the Scottish media and the UK Conservative Party’s ‘territorial code’ to the changing fortunes of the party and its leader, asking if it can be sustained amid the turbulence of two ongoing constitutional debates: Brexit and Scottish Independence.