Ruth Davidson says her party is 'ready to serve' at Holyrood

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has declared her party is "ready to serve" at Holyrood as she hit out at the "failing" SNP Government.

Twenty years after the Tories suffered an electoral wipeout and lost all their MPs in Scotland, Ms Davidson insisted her party could be "that better government".

She has already spearheaded a Tory revival in the Scottish Parliament, with the Conservatives having their best Holyrood election result in 2016, when they won 31 seats and overtook Labour to become the largest opposition party.

But Ms Davidson said it was time to "move on" from last year's victories and "focus on the future".

She declared: "We're a party that aspires to govern for all of Scotland.

"A party that wants to show you don't have to pick between the old Labour-SNP establishment any more."

The SNP, with its focus on the prospect of a second independence referendum, has "now simply lost all grip on the things that really matter," she said.

Ms Davidson told the Scottish Conservative conference in Glasgow: "This SNP Government is failing Scotland. And this Scottish Conservative party is ready to serve.

"Ready to demand a politics that no longer obsesses over the colour of a flag, but rather focuses on the content of our lives."

Returning to the "old battles" of the 2014 independence campaign serves no-one and would leave Scotland "divided" and with "neglected politics".

Ms Davidson told the conference: "We can be that better government.

"We must be that better government.

"We will be that better government.

"That's our ambition - nothing less."

However she conceded it "won't come easy", saying her party is not yet a "government in waiting".

But she claimed that by reaching out to voters "by representing them, by serving them, we will reach that goal".

Ms Davidson added: "I'm up for that fight."

She insisted that "Labour's chaos means that, here in Scotland, there now can be only one party which can offer the challenge that's required to the nationalists", who have been in power at Holyrood since 2007.

But over that decade, she said, "this SNP Government has simply squandered the opportunity it has had to transform our country".

To improve a school system that "simply isn't working", Ms Davidson pledged her party would carry out a "root and branch review" of the country's Curriculum for Excellence reforms which she said had "left a generation of teachers, parents and pupils utterly confused".

The Tory declared: "It is time to get rid of the waffle, and the theories that have failed - and restore Scotland's reputation as providing the best education in the world."

She also demanded that the Scottish Government work to help "get the best Brexit deal for all of us" rather than using the result of the European referendum to call for a second vote on Scottish independence.

SNP First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has "never met a referendum she hasn't tried to overturn," Ms Davidson said.

The Scottish Tory leader was a prominent campaigner for the UK to stay in the European Union, but she said: "Here's the difference between me and Nicola Sturgeon - I want us to make a success of Brexit. She wants Britain to fail."

Ms Davidson continued: "As we leave the EU, whether individually we were Remain or Leave, we deserve a Scottish Government that is focused on helping Team UK get the best Brexit deal for all of us, not using it to revive its independence obsession."

She told the conference: "You don't sort Brexit by splitting the UK. You deal with Brexit by sticking together.

"I'm a democrat, conference, we accepted the rules, we must now accept the result and we move on to implement it."

She made plain her opposition to a second independence referendum, saying: "I don't want to see my country go through all the turmoil and the division we suffered three years ago."

But she also argued that by focusing on the constitution, the Scottish Government failed to deal properly with key issues such as health, education and the economy.

Ms Davidson asked: "How many more years can Scotland afford to spend time not properly addressing these things that matter?

"How much longer do we have to put up with a nationalist party that puts its grievance-hunting agenda, before all our priorities."

After Scots voted by 55% to 45% to stay in the UK in September 2014, the Tory accused the SNP of ignoring that result.

"Are you as sick and tired as I am of their arrogance?" she asked.

"Are you as angry as I am that the result of a democratic vote - one that the SNP promised to respect just thee years ago - is being torn up in front of our eyes?"

Ms Davidson said the people of Scotland were telling the SNP "loud and clear" that they do not "share your constitutional obsession".

The Tory continued: "We don't want the next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, taken up with another independence referendum."

Instead, she said, the SNP should do the job they were elected to do and "address the issues that really matter".

She added: "Scotland said no to independence. Scotland is saying - stop trying to bounce us into another referendum.

"And I can promise you this. This party - the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - will never waver in our determination to stand up for the decision we made as a country. We will fight you every step of the way.

"We said no. We meant it. Are you listening, Nicola? No. Second. Referendum."

But Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said: "Ruth Davidson has some cheek to talk about improving education.

"It is Ruth Davidson's Tories who have allowed Nicola Sturgeon to focus on her constitutional obsession, rather than closing the growing gap between the richest and the poorest in our schools.

"It is Ruth Davidson's party pressing ahead with a hard Brexit that will harm our economy and hurt hard-working families, while supporting tax cuts for the richest in society.

"And it is Ruth Davidson's Tories who have put our Union at risk once again."

Ms Dugdale, whose party supports a federal UK, added: "Ruth Davidson has offered nothing but bluff and bluster to the people of Scotland.

"Scottish Labour believes our country is divided enough. That's why we are firmly opposed to a second independence referendum and will never support Scottish independence. We believe that together we're stronger."

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie MSP said: "Today's speeches show that Ruth Davidson and David Mundell are now fully on board with Theresa May's hard Brexit agenda.

"This is a threat to Scottish businesses, jobs and the economy as well as the thousands of EU citizens who have made their home in Scotland.

"The right and democratic thing to do is give the British people the final say on the outcome of Theresa May's Brexit negotiations."