Ruth Davidson

Her father, Douglas, a mill manager at Laidlaw & Fairgrieve, had played professional football for Partick Thistle F.C. in his younger days and was a midfielder for Selkirk F.C. during the late-1970s and early-1980s.

When her father took a job in the whisky industry, the family left the Borders for Fife, where she attended the state secondary Buckhaven High School.

Her parents voted Conservative but were not especially involved in politics.

Davidson studied English literature at the University of Edinburgh, gaining an undergraduate Master of Arts (MA Hons) degree.

After graduation, she joined the Glenrothes Gazette as a trainee reporter.

Ruth Elizabeth Davidson, Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links, (born 10 November 1978), is a Scottish politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 2011 to 2019 and Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party in the Scottish Parliament from 2020 to 2021.

She later moved to Kingdom FM, followed by Real Radio, and finally joined BBC Scotland in late 2002 where she worked as a radio journalist, producer, presenter and reporter.

She also served as a signaller in the 32 Signal Regiment of the Territorial Army for three years (2003–06) before suffering a back injury in a training exercise at Sandhurst.

After leaving the BBC in 2009 to study at the University of Glasgow, she joined the Conservative Party.

She left the BBC in 2009 to study International Development at the University of Glasgow.

In 2009, after having left the BBC to study at the University of Glasgow, Davidson joined the Conservative Party.

She said she was inspired by a call by David Cameron, the then Leader of the Opposition, in the wake of the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal, for people who had never previously been political to get involved in politics.

She was encouraged by the Scottish Conservative Party's Director of Media, Ramsay Jones, to join the party and stand for the House of Commons seat of Glasgow North East at the 2009 by-election, which was triggered by the resignation of Labour MP and Speaker of the House, Michael Martin.

She finished in third place, with 1,075 votes (5.2% share of the vote).

From early 2010 to March 2011, she worked as the head of the private office of the then Scottish Conservative leader, Annabel Goldie.

She played a large part in the organisation of campaign media events in the run-up to the 2010 general election, at which she ran again in Glasgow North East, finishing in fourth place with 1,569 votes (a 5.3% share of the vote).

A few months before the election it was reported in the press that Macaskill had failed to fully disclose his business career to party members ahead of a 2010 internal party selection contest.

On 24 March, Andrew Fulton, the Chairman of the Scottish Conservatives, decided that Macaskill was to be deselected, thereby promoting Davidson to the first position in the Glasgow regional list.

This led to protests from the supporters of Macaskill, and some major donors withdrew their financial support for the party.

In the election, after coming a distant fourth in Glasgow Kelvin, Davidson was elected to the Scottish Parliament from the Glasgow region list.

She served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Glasgow from 2011 to 2016 and for Edinburgh Central from 2016 to 2021.

Born in Edinburgh, Davidson was raised in Selkirk and later attended Buckhaven High School in Fife.

After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, she worked as a BBC journalist and served in the Territorial Army as a signaller.

At the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, Davidson was elected on the Glasgow regional list.

Following party leader Annabel Goldie's resignation in May 2011, Davidson stood in the subsequent leadership election.

She won the contest and was declared party leader on 4 November 2011.

For the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, Davidson contested the Glasgow Kelvin constituency and was initially placed second on the Conservatives' Glasgow region list, behind Malcolm Macaskill.

She supported Scotland remaining part of the United Kingdom in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

In the years after 2014, she continued to appeal to "No" voters in the referendum on that basis along with opposition to a second vote.

In 2016, the Conservatives replaced the Labour Party as the second-largest party in the Scottish Parliament.

Davidson was generally considered a fairly successful leader, especially in 2016 and 2017.

Ideologically, she is considered a centrist.

She supported the UK remaining in the European Union in the 2016 EU membership referendum.

Davidson was born at the Edinburgh Royal Maternity Hospital and Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion.

She was raised in Selkirk and later in Fife.

Her family lived in Raeburn Place and then Bridgelands Road, Selkirk, and Davidson attended Knowepark Primary School until Primary 3.

Davidson resigned the leadership in August 2019, shortly after Boris Johnson became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

She was succeeded by Jackson Carlaw who was replaced by Douglas Ross.

After leading the party in Holyrood for several months, Davidson stood down at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.

In 2021, she was appointed a life peer in the House of Lords.