Ruth Davidson narrowly avoids skinny dipping in Loch Ness after SNP win 48 seats
13 December 2019, 06:37
Former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson made an unusual election promise, pledging to skinny dip in Loch Ness if the SNP win 50 seats at Thursday's election.
The Conservative said she felt safe that her "that my modesty (and others' eyeballs) will remain unmolested" as she thinks conditions in the 2019 election are "markedly different" from 2015 when the SNP took 56 seats.
Writing in The Telegraph newspaper, she said the nationalists have been keen to talk up the possibility of winning 50 seats.
She said: "I will happily wager to strip naked on the banks of Loch Ness and subject myself to a Hogmanay wild swimming session should such a result occur, safe in the knowledge that my modesty (and others' eyeballs) will remain unmolested."
Scotland has 59 seats up for grabs with Ms Davidson saying she doesn't think the SNP can rise from their current 35 seats to 50 on Thursday.
The final poll before the election predicted the SNP would gain six more seats up to 41.
Thankfully for Mrs Davidson the SNP only took 48 seats, avoiding having to strip off and swim in the freezing Loch.
She said: "The party currently holds 35 seats, while the Scottish Conservatives control 13, Labour has seven and the Lib Dems four.
"To hit the magic 50, the SNP has to pinch 15 seats from three parties with wildly different offerings on Brexit, the permissibility of another independence referendum, the nuclear deterrent, the economy in general and nationalisation in particular."
She added: "In addition to this, the SNP isn't just targeting gains. It's also trying to close the door on further losses. In 2017, largely thanks to pro-Union voters adopting tactical voting strategies, Ms Sturgeon lost 21 seats and half a million votes in a single night. A fair share of what's left are ultra-marginals."
Ms Davidson also said that pro-Union voters in Scotland now have a taste for voting tactically against the SNP and concluded: "let's just say I'm confident I won't be wild swimming any time soon".
