Scottish Tory leader Davidson quits citing Brexit 'conflict', family pressures

Scottish Conservative Party leader Ruth Davidson quit on Thursday, citing personal “conflict” over Brexit as campaigners prepared to fight the looming suspension of parliament.

Davidson, who helped pull the Scottish Tories from the depths to claim 16 seats at the 2017 general election, also said family pressures had influenced her decision. She gave birth to a son last October.

Openly critical of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and a firm pro-European, Davidson acknowledged that she had not hidden the conflict between her belief that Britain should stay in the European Union and respecting the 2016 referendum result.

However, she did not attack Johnson's decision to suspend parliament in order to thwart his attempts to leave the EU without a deal, instead stating that she believed the prime minister's claims that he was seeking negotiations with Brussels.

“We had three golden opportunities to support a deal. The people right now who are saying they would do anything to avoid no deal had a goal gaping in front of them three times and they hit the ball over the bar,” Davidson said on Thursday, referring to the thrice-rejected Brexit deal of former prime minister Theresa May.

“There has been a lot that’s been written about my relationship with the prime minister (Johnson) and I went out to Downing Street to meet him last week in a private meeting. I stared him right in the eye. I asked him out: ‘I need to know are you actually trying to get a deal or not?’ And he categorically assured me that he was.”

In Edinburgh, a Scottish court began hearing a case aimed at blocking the UK parliament's suspension.

The case was launched last month by 75 parliamentarians before the Queen gave Johnson permission to prorogue, or suspend, parliament for five weeks on September 10.

They now want an interim interdict, or injunction, that would stop the suspension pending a full hearing that starts on September 6.

Johnson also encountered his first ministerial resignation when George Young quit as a whip in the House of Lords.

In his resignation letter, Young said he was “very unhappy at the timing and length of the prorogation, and its motivation.”

“While not agreeing with the hyperbole of some critics, I have been unpersuaded by the reasons given for that decision, which I believe risks undermining the fundamental role of parliament at a critical time in our history, and reinforces the view that the government may not have the confidence of the House for its Brexit policy.”