Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson took the Tories from fourth to first in Edinburgh Central
Ruth Davidson last night welcomed the strong performance of the Scottish Conservatives in both the North-East and Highlands and Islands.
The Tory leader told the Press and Journal she would love to say she had managed to envisage “each and every one of those wins”.
But she acknowledged the scale of the success had come as a surprise.
She added: “We had hoped to go up from two on the regional list in the north-east to four.
“In fact the candidate that I visited most throughout the campaign was Peter Chapman, our candidate in Banffshire and Buchan Coast. I think I was up two, three, four times in the closing weeks of the campaign, including on the helicopter.
“I didn’t expect for one minute we would get Liam Kerr (in the north-east) as well. We had hoped and campaigned hard in the Highlands to get in a third so I’m very pleased.”
She said three-quarters of her team had never served in a parliament before.
But she insisted it was in the variety of the new MSPs’ backgrounds that its strength lay.
Ruth Davidson delighted with Tory results in north of Scotland
