The leader of the Scottish Conservatives has launched a stinging tirade against a former cabinet minister who claimed David Cameron said he “doesn’t care” about Scotland.
Ruth Davidson said she “wouldn’t trust David Laws” as far as she could “throw him”, after the ex-Liberal Democrat MP reported the alleged comments in his new book.
Mr Laws – a former Chief Secretary to the Treasury who was forced to resign in an expenses scandal after just 17 days in office – claimed the comments came in a conversation between Mr Cameron and former Liberal Democrat boss Nick Clegg just days after Scotland voted No.
The SNP has claimed the comments “lay bare the Tories’ contempt for Scotland”, but a senior Downing Street source rubbished the claims.
Mr Laws wrote: “Over the weekend, Nick Clegg spoke to David Cameron. It was a tense conversation. Nick Clegg warned that the referendum aftermath was in danger of becoming a complete disaster.
“He said bluntly that the prime minister was in danger of guaranteeing the break-up of the UK, with the only beneficiaries being the SNP.
“‘Look, Nick,’ said David Cameron impatiently, ‘I just don’t care. We’ve only got one Conservative MP north of the border. Let Labour sort it out. It’s now their problem.'”
But Ms Davidson poured scorn on Mr Laws’ claims, suggesting he was just “trying to make money” by publishing conversations “even he admits” he wasn’t involved in.
Speaking to the Press and Journal, Ms Davidson said: “I wouldn’t trust David Laws as far as I could throw him. He lasted precisely 17 days in the cabinet before he was thrown out for fiddling his expenses.
“He’s now trying to make money out of a book by saying things that were in conversations where even he admits he wasn’t in the room.
“I know David Cameron – I know the shift that he put in during the referendum campaign.
“He worked exceptionally hard to keep our country together and you can only judge the government by its record in making sure that it honoured the vow, that is passed all the new powers to the Scottish Parliament.
“(That) is why we are having the election campaign that we’re having (and) why the Scottish Parliament is now the most powerful devolved legislature anywhere in the world.”
Ms Davidson, who is visiting the north-east today, was speaking during a visit to a Ductform in Glenrothes in Fife. During the visit, she claimed the “absence of a grown-up discussion about how we create jobs” was a “massive, gaping hole” in the election campaign.
Broken record
A Scottish Liberal Democrat spokesman said: “Ruth Davidson is the broken record of the campaign – she is not a unionist, she is a divisionist with no plan for Scotland.
“David’s Cameron’s conspicuous absence during this campaign says it all.
“Ruth knows she needs to try and create some artificial distance between her and Westminister but ultimately they are one and the same.
“The Tories don’t care about Scotland – they are much more interested in themselves.”