A fair few political gamblers will be counting their losses after Ruth Davidson’s firm denial that she harbours any wish ever to become prime minister. The Scottish Conservative leader made clear in an interview at the weekend that her personal life, her burgeoning family and her mental health would all suffer were she to become a Tory MP, or enter national politics. Clearly she thinks that no stab at high office would be worth jeopardising the things in her life that matter to her now.
The Scottish Tory leader’s frankness has been applauded by campaigners for helping to combat the stigma surrounding mental illness. Self-harm in particular is rarely disclosed or understood in discussions about psychological wellbeing, although Davidson must surely see the tension inherent in seeking to end stigma about mental illness while the party she proudly represents tears down mental health provision. Davidson fears that standing to be party leader would risk her mental health, whereas for hundreds of thousands of people, the Conservatives being in power does precisely that.
Yet with a past that both excludes her from leadership while at the same time earns her praise for a style that is “refreshing”, Davidson hints at a problem endemic in British political life. At university, I met dozens of people in their late teens and early 20s who had already then decided they were aiming to become an MP: a few achieved their goal and entered the Commons in recent elections. Riffling through biographies of senior politicians, it’s clear that seeing elected office as a career end in itself is hardly an anomaly: Theresa May spoke of her desire, while still at university, to be the first female prime minister, and was reportedly enraged when Margaret Thatcher beat her to it. The result of our political culture is a cavalcade of…
