TORIES SET OUT ELECTION STALL
Party opposes independence referendum – and reveals plans on employment, health and schools Johnson will not come north ahead of election
THE Scottish Conservatives have launched their manifesto – with stopping another independence referendum at the top of their priorities.
The Tories said they instead want to focus on building a recovery, with commitments on jobs and spending on infrastructure projects.
The manifesto includes a pledge of an extra £2 billion for the NHS over the next five years.
Other policies included a £200 million fund to tackle potholes, scrapping public car-parking charges to help revive town centres and a homebuyers tax cut saving people up to £2100.
There are also commitments on building more homes and looking at new rail lines and stations.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross admitted his party is not likely to win the election, but said the manifesto “sets out the issues that the Scottish Conservatives will fight for in the next Parliament”.
The Tories want a “double lock” guarantee on funding for the NHS.
It includes either investing Barnett formula consequentials – the money that comes to Scotland from the UK Government, proportionate to health spending in England – on the NHS in Scotland or an increase in line with inflation.
Ross said that is equal to £2bn. On jobs, the Tories want £500 “Retrain to Rebuild” grants available to everyone to help with finding new work.
They propose Job Security Councils, Rapid Retraining Courses and an Enterprise Bill within the first 100 days of the new Parliament to establish an economic development agency in every region.
They want to provide full fibre broadband to every home and business by 2027.
On education, the party is calling for spending of £550m to recruit 3000 more teachers and replacing the current leaving age of 16 with a new “skills participation” age of 18.
They would build 60,000 new homes over the next five years with 40,000 of those for social rent.
On railways, the Tories would “reverse” the Beeching cuts, which started in the 1960s and closed dozens of train lines all over Scotland.
The manifesto states the party would review the cuts and re-open stations and routes where there was an economic case for doing so.
Ross said that rather than re-opening lines and stations, the plan would be to review the cuts and work with communities to see what was possible.
He cited the Borders railway as a model for looking at what was possible.
The Tories are again putting opposition not only to independence but to a referendum at the forefront of their campaign.
Ross argued that recovery would be at risk if Scotland was to go into another independence referendum.
He said: “We cannot rebuild Scotland while we are crippled by the threat of an independence referendum. So we need to take that threat off the table.
“We need to ensure the Scottish Parliament is laser-focused on our national interest right now, not party-political priorities. “We need to prevent the SNP from winning a majority, from having total control.”
The other parties reacted to the manifesto launch.
SNP depute leader Keith Brown, left, said: “The Tory strategy for trying to block a referendum on independence is utterly undemocratic. “It’s clear that Douglas Ross and his party have no route through the pandemic, no vision for recovery, no ambition, no intention of setting out a detailed plan on how they would run Scotland, and offer no leadership.
“That is irresponsible and disrespectful to voters, who deserve better from the Tories than a long list of things they are against and virtually nothing about what they are for.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, left, said: “Douglas Ross’s Tories are not interested in uniting the country – they are deliberately talking up division for their own political purposes.
“The Tory Government’s record in power is one of shame – they are responsible for so many of the structural inequalities that we faced pre-Covid and that have since been exacerbated by the pandemic.
“We also can’t trust them to stand up to the SNP – at the last election they promised us a strong opposition and, in that time, have given us Boris and Brexit and things are so bad that even Ruth Davidson has walked away.”
Scottish LibDem health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “Scottish Conservatives voted against £120 million extra spending for mental health secured by Scottish Liberal Democrats in the last budget and their colleagues in Westminster are proposing to saddle NHS staff with a measly 1% pay rise.
“Douglas Ross is Boris Johnson’s man in Scotland, he cannot be trusted with our health service.”
We cannot rebuild Scotland, while we are crippled by the threat of an independence referendum
BORIS Johnson is not due to visit Scotland ahead of next month’s Holyrood elections, the Scottish Conservative leader has said.
Douglas Ross does not expect to be joined on the campaign trail by the Prime Minster as his party seeks to deprive the SNP of a parliamentary majority after May 6.
Ross has previously played down the prospect of Johnson travelling north of the Border to campaign for the Scottish Conservatives despite him staging numerous events for local elections in England.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister’s press secretary, Allegra Stratton, said the coronavirus pandemic was making visits “more challenging than they would be otherwise”.
Asked whether Johnson was planning to campaign in Scotland, Ross said: “I spoke to him last night, he’s absolutely behind our efforts here in Scotland to stop the SNP majority, to focus on recovery. But to answer your question, I don’t expect to see him before the election on May 6.”
Johnson last visited Scotland at the end of January, when coronavirus levels were much higher and a “stay-athome” order was in place, with people told only to make necessary trips.
Earlier this month, Ross said: “Last time he was up here he was supporting our vaccinators, he was looking at how we are getting the vaccine rolled out across Scotland.
“We have seen all the party leaders in Scotland having to tackle this election in a very different way because we are still living under significant restrictions.”
He added: “The Prime Minister is fully in touch with what we are doing here, but he understands it’s my campaign as leader of the Scottish Conservatives, it is our manifesto, he is absolutely behind what we are doing here in Scotland.”