The Tories are too "joyless" according to Ruth Davidson MSP, their leader in Scotland, who also said her party needs to be less "authoritarian".
Speaking alongside Michael Gove at the launch of new centre-right thinktank Onward, 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.”
Commenting, Kenneth Gibson MSP said:
“It seems to me that Ms Davidson is more concerned about how her party ‘looks’ than the substance of what they do.
“Tory MPs from Scotland at Westminster sometimes embarrass their colleagues down south with their reactionary views, whilst the Tory Group at Holyrood is nothing but a cipher for their UK bosses.
“In the fiscal framework discussions in 2015/16 the Tories at Holyrood wanted us to accept a further cut of up to £7 billion over ten years on top of austerity. Last week their supine support for the UK Government would have stripped the Scottish Parliament of some of its powers. And week on week they decry the SNP Government in every area of policy from the NHS to policing, despite SNP Scotland doing much better than Tory England.
“Maybe the Tories would do better if they simply put Scotland first for a change. A forlorn hope!”
ENDS
