Can the Scottish Tories without Ruth Davidson hold onto most or all of their 13 MPs?
At a pinch this might impact on Johnson’s majority hopes
Two and a half years ago the Tory star was then Scottish leader Ruth Davidson who saw her party north of the border make 12 gains to add to their previous single seat in Scotland. She was widely hailed as the future of the party and, even though not an MP, rose sharpy in the next Westminster leader betting.
There was little doubt that it was Davidson who saved TMay’s bacon.
This coming Thursday those seats will have to be defended but there is no Davidson around any more. She stepped aside at the end of August citing family reasons and her conflict over Brexit.
The big question, and this could just impact on whether the Tories get their overall majority, is how many of those gains of GE2017 will remain.
The polling suggest that the Scottish Tories are holding onto their vote shares from last time but the gap behind the SNP has increased. This is largely as a result of the further collapse of Scottish LAB. In the seats being defended, though, LAB was largely irrelevant.
It could be that the Scottish Tory contingent is returned largely intact. Whatever there are a lot of fierce fights taking place.
One thing that might help is that the SNP seems to be making Jo Swinson’s East Dunbartonshire their main target.