Britain’s Next Conservative Leader May Be the Least Tory Ever

A year ago, British Prime Minister Theresa May gambled her Conservative majority in a snap election that she expected to yield a strong mandate to negotiate the U.K.’s departure from the European Union. It turned out to be a losing bet as the Tories lost ground almost everywhere—except Scotland, a place few expected to contribute any votes at all. The Conservatives had their best showing there in more than three decades, winning 13 of 59 seats in the country, up from just one in the previous election.

Key to those victories was Ruth Davidson, a woman who wasn’t even a candidate and isn’t a member of the British Parliament. Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, had ignored instructions from London to fight a campaign based on May and Brexit, focusing instead on opposition to any repeat of the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence. The prime minister’s caution and inability to connect with voters has led even her own staff to call her “the Maybot.” Davidson, with her warmth and instinctive comic timing, is known to Scots simply as Ruth. “She was a breath of fresh air,” says Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, who campaigned against Brexit with her two years ago. “No hint of arrogance.”