Predicted SNP majority fails to materialise
Throughout the election campaign, the polls had predicted the SNP would win another overall majority at Holyrood.
Throughout the election campaign, the polls had predicted the SNP would win another overall majority at Holyrood.
However, this failed to materialise, a result which could see the Tories put pressure on the nationalists to scrap their controversial named person scheme.
The Tories have consistently opposed the measure, which proposes appointing a guardian to monitor the welfare of every child in Scotland.
The Conservative campaign had focused on providing a strong opposition to the SNP and Ms Davidson accepted “many people that have given us their vote for the very first time, not because they're true blue Conservatives, but because there's a job of work they want us to do''.
She hailed her victory in Edinburgh Central as an ''incredible result'' and added: “I hope the message that was resonating was of being a strong opposition, to hold the SNP to account, to saying no to a second independence referendum, to respect the decision that our country made, and to really focus on the things we're paying a government to focus on, on schools, on hospitals, on public services. That's what people want.”
Chancellor George Osborne tweeted his congratulations to Ms Davidson and activists for an “extraordinary result in Scotland”.
The Tory added: “We've deprived @theSNP of a majority.”
Scottish Secretary David Mundell - whose son Oliver captured the Dumfriesshire constituency from Labour - declared the result to be a “a seismic change in Scottish politics”.
The Tories' previous best result at Holyrood was 18 MSPs, a total the party achieved in both 1999 and 2003.
Mr Mundell said: “I was a candidate back in those first elections in 1999, it would have been incredible to think the Scottish Conservatives could have finished ahead of Labour and be the official opposition. It demonstrates that Ruth has transformed our party in Scotland.”