Tories triumphant
Scots Conservative leader vows to ‘take the fight’ to Nationalists after dramatic wins boost party’s vote
SCOTS Tory leader Ruth Davidson yesterday said she was ready to ‘take the fight’ to the SNP after her party made sweeping gains in the local elections.
The Tories are now the biggest party in several councils, gaining 161 seats and returning a record 276 councillors – more than doubling their result from the 2012 election.
Yesterday the party claimed this was the ‘best local government result’ ever – with senior members insisting there are now no ‘no go areas’ north of the Border for the Conservatives.
This came as Labour suffered a number of defeats in Scotland – losing control of Glasgow City Council and losing a total of 132 seats across the country.
Unexpected wins for the Tories in some of the country’s most deprived areas helped them surpass Labour, and gain more seats than any other party – including the SNP, which gained just seven.
Miss Davidson said she would be using the results as a ‘platform to take this fight to the SNP’ in next month’s General Election – where she is hoping to oust some of the Nationalists’ top MPs.
The Scottish Conservative leader insisted that her party’s success shows a building of momentum as voters turn to them in a bid to reject the SNP’s bid for a second independence referendum.
Miss Davidson added the results reflect ‘some of the gains we made last year at the Scottish Parliament where we doubled the number of MSPs and became the second party in Scotland.
‘There are people right across Scotland now who are looking for this Scottish fightback against the SNP. The only party strong enough to lead that fightback against the SNP is the Scottish Conservatives.’
‘I think that we have got to continue to work hard, we are taking nothing for granted.’
The Tory leader also claimed that to get the best indicator of how the General Election will play out in Scotland, commentators must analyse which parties got the highest number of first preferences in the single transferable voting system.
Miss Davidson added: ‘If you look right across the Borders, in Dumfries and Galloway, East Renfrewshire, in places like Perthshire, Aberdeenshire and in Moray – so in Angus Robertson’s seat, the group leader, John Nicolson’s boss in Westminster – you see it’s the Scottish Conservatives that have topped that vote.
‘So we need to use this as a platform to take this fight to the SNP and lead Scotland’s fightback against the SNP.’
Among the highlights for the Tories was outpolling Labour by two to one in East Renfrewshire where they are now the largest party on the council with seven seats.
They also have the most councillors in Aberdeenshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Perth and Kinross, the Scottish Borders and South Ayrshire.
The Tories are tied with the SNP in Stirling where both have nine councillors.
These results will likely have a number of senior SNP figures, including deputy leader Angus Robertson and MP Pete Wishart, worrying over the upcoming vote with Tory support in their constituencies surging at council level.
The party also claim they managed to prevent the SNP from securing a majority on Glasgow City Council where they now have eight councillors – a massive increase from the single seat they have held for the past nine years.
Conservative councillors now represent some of Scotland’s most deprived areas – including Shettleston in Glasgow and Paisley’s Ferguslie Park. These areas had traditionally been Labour voting.
But yesterday Tory MSP Adam Tomkins said: ‘There is no “no go” area in Glasgow for the Scottish Conservatives, there is no “no go” area in Scotland for the Scottish Conservatives. There is not a street in Scotland where there is not a Conservative vote.’
They will also have representation in Cowdenbeath, Fife, just minutes away from former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s