Ruth Davidson to receive peerage in PM's honours list

Former leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson has been nominated for a peerage by the Prime Minister.

The 41-year-old MSP will now be heading for the House of Lords along with Boris Johnson’s brother Jo Johnson and the PM’s chief strategic adviser Sir Edward Lister.

Davidson said she is honoured to be nominated for the role as she confirmed she will only take her seat after stepping down from Holyrood in March.

She said: “I am honoured to follow in the footsteps of former Holyrood parliamentarians such as Jack McConnell, Jim Wallace and Annabel Goldie in being nominated for membership of the House of Lords.

“As a chamber dedicated to scrutinising and revising legislation, the upper house is stronger when it includes a range of voices with experience from different jobs, backgrounds, specialities and parliaments across the UK, and I believe I can make a contribution to its work.

“However, my main focus continues to be my Edinburgh Central constituency and I have confirmed that I will only take my seat after I cease to be an MSP in March.”

Several Tory grandees and a suite of Brexiteers are also set for the Lords and Philip May, husband of former PM Theresa May is destined for a knighthood, a list of nominations published on Friday showed.

The 36-strong list also includes ex-England cricket player and Brexit supporter Sir Ian Botham, newspaper owner Evgeny Lebedev and former MP for North Ayrshire and Arran, Kathryn Clark.

Notable absentees include the last Commons speaker John Bercow and Labour’s former deputy leader Tom Watson.

But Johnson did pick former chancellors Ken Clarke and Philip Hammond for peerages, after he stripped them from the Tory whip after they defied him over Brexit.