Conservative Party Conference: Tories must be seen as more than 'competent technocrats,' warns Scottish leader

Ruth Davidson raises her sights beyond her brief in Scotland as she calls on the Prime Minister to be bold

Ruth Davidson is seen as a rising star and possible future Tory leader (PA)

The Conservatives must be seen as more than “competent technocrats” interested only in running the economy, Ruth Davidson, the party’s leader in Scotland, has said.

In her speech to the party's Manchester conference, Ms Davidson, seen as a rising star and possible future Tory leader, raised her sights well beyond her brief in Scotland as she called on David Cameron to be bold in his second term as prime minister.

I don’t want us to be just the party of the technocrat – the grudging vote of competence

&#13; <p>Tuth Davidson</p>&#13;

“It is not enough for our party to be seen as decent technocrats --adequate middle managers who will steward the economy without scaring the horses,” she said. “With Labour galloping off to the left, it would be the easy – and lazy – thing to do. It might secure the government for some time to come, but that’s not enough. I don’t want us to be just the party of the technocrat – the grudging vote of competence.”

Ms Davidson said the Tories needed to be “the party of the thinkers, the dreamers, the reformers and the visionaries too.” Calling for “proper, old-fashioned, blue-collar Toryism,” she argued that her party needed “the zeal of the missionary, the courage of the pioneer, the ambition to lift our eyes to the horizon and say there’s a new Jerusalem we want to build and we will work towards it every day.”

Tory aides believe the party has a “make or break” moment next May, when it hopes to overtake Labour to become the second largest party in the Scottish Parliament elections. At present, the SNP has 64 seats, Labour 38 and the Tories 15. Voters elect 73 constituency MSPs under the first-past-the-post system and use their second vote to elect 56 regional list MSPs under the additional member system. Only three of the Tories’ 15 seats are constituency ones and the party will target more “second votes”.

Ms Davidson said the elections were a “huge opportunity” for the Tories to be "the voice of the quiet majority". She appealed to the two million people who voted against independence in last year’s referendum to cast an “intelligent vote for the Union.”

She argued that the proportional system meant such a vote would not be wasted. “Every cross in the Scottish Conservative box is a vote backing Britain and defending Scotland’s place in it,” she said.

David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary, told the conference the SNP must set out its plans for income tax before the Holyrood elections. He said he wanted to implement the Parliament’s new powers in 2017.