Sturgeon branded ‘Nat out of hell’ by furious Tory leader
RUTH Davidson has branded Nicola Sturgeon a ‘Nat out of hell’ as she promised a ‘titanic battle’ to oust top Nationalist MPs.
The Scottish Tory leader claimed her party is on the verge of providing a shock on election night – as she hit out at the SNP’s bid to turn the UK contest into another referendum bid.
One of Miss Davidson’s key General Election targets is the Moray seat of the SNP’s deputy leader, Angus Robertson.
Yesterday she said the chances of ousting him were ‘very good’ and referred to the fact that 49.9 per cent of Moray voters backed Brexit last year.
Miss Davidson was making a speech in Edinburgh in the lead-up to tomorrow’s council elections, telling campaigners most Scottish voters would ‘rather SNP councillors were filling up cracks in their road, not opening up cracks in the UK’.
She criticised the First Minister for failing to tackle issues such as health, education and social care and claimed Miss Sturgeon had managed to turn every recent election debate into one on splitting up the UK.
Speaking later, Miss Davidson revealed the mammoth effort her party is putting into its General Election campaign, hoping to unseat a number of high-profile Nationalists. These include Mr Robertson, also the SNP’s Westminster leader.
He currently has a majority of 9,065, but the Conservatives are confident sizeable local support for Brexit and backing for the Union could help them steal the seat. Miss Davidson said: ‘It’s a very pro-Union part of the country, and it was the most pro-Brexit area of Scotland.
‘I also think for those people, the 50.1 per cent of people in Moray who voted Remain, similar to thousands of people across Scotland who voted Remain that are also pro-Union, they are really angry.
‘I don’t think anybody has cottoned on to how angry pro-UK Remainers are that Nicola Sturgeon, Angus Robertson and others have hijacked their Remain vote to be a proxy vote for independence. People are furious about it.’
She said that there was a ‘titanic battle’ between Mr Robertson and Tory candidate Douglas Ross, who is currently an MSP and councillor in the area.
Miss Davidson added: ‘I think should Angus Robertson’s seat fall, that’s a real Ed Balls moment for Scotland.’
She was referring to the then Labour shadow chancellor who lost his Morley and Outwood seat in the 2015 election in one of the most memorable shocks of the contest.
Miss Davidson also accused the SNP of failing to get its line straight on independence after Miss Sturgeon claimed it was not a key General Election issue – only to change her mind after Alex Salmond said it was. ‘Nicola Sturgeon is now trying to face both ways,’ she said, ‘telling the faithful that independence is at the heart of her campaign and telling the rest of us it couldn’t be further from her mind.
‘It didn’t look very convincing when – last week – she posed astride a motorbike festooned with Yes stickers. Like a Nat out of hell. The SNP see every election as a chance to push for independence.’ The Nationalists had been ‘wrongfooted’ by the snap General Election, Miss Davidson said, which had left them ‘retrenching’ their appeal to core SNP voters rather than reaching out to others.
The Conservatives are targeting a number of seats across Scotland, with polls suggesting that they could gain a number of MPs. During her speech Miss Davidson also hit out at the current LabourSNP coalition in Edinburgh, claiming the ‘beautiful city’ was ‘marred by dirty streets and overflowing bins’.
It was a ‘disgrace in our capital city and global tourist destination’, she said.
Asked during a campaign visit to Leith, Edinburgh, if she was concerned about her deputy leader losing his seat, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘No, absolutely not.
‘Angus is not only a really strong local MP in Moray, with a great deal of respect for the work he has done locally but I think, as anybody will have observed over the last couple of years, he has been the only effective leader of the opposition in the House of Commons.
‘So Angus is a fantastic MP, a fantastic deputy leader, has been a fantastic leader of the group and I’m confident that he will continue to be all of these things after the election.’
‘People are really angry’