Moray: the SNP big hitter versus the Tory football referee

AS THE GENERAL ELECTION GETS INTO FULL SWING, WE TAKE A LOOK AT SOME OF THE SCOTTISH CONSTITUENCIES WHERE MANY OF THE FIERCES POLITICAL BATTLES ARE SET TO TAKE PLACE

ANGUS ROBERTSON doesn’t look like a politician fearing his career could be cut off in its prime as he drops election leaflets through letterboxes on a gloriously sun-soaked evening in Buckie.

But if the polls are correct, Robertson could be ousted in Moray, the constituency he has represented at Westminster since 2001.

For Robertson to lose one of the safest SNP seats in Scotland to the Tories would represent a “Michael Portillo-type moment” given his role in masterminding Alex Salmond’s Holyrood election wins in 2007 and 2011.

Robertson led what was the third-biggest party in the Commons in the last parliament, giving him a high-profile slot at Prime Minister’s Questions at which, it is pretty much universally agreed, he performed strongly.

Moray, an affluent rural constituency in the northeast – once fertile ground for the Tories before falling to the SNP in 1987 – typifies the sort of area Ruth Davidson hopes to take as part of a “blue surge” her party is confidently forecasting on June 8.

But if Robertson is feeling any hint of pressure it doesn’t show as he walks with supporters through the scenic town on the coast of the Moray Firth.

Robertson says: “The election in Moray is a straight choice between the SNP’s record of achievement, investment and progressive politics or an increasingly hard-right Tory government which will bring further cuts to public services and to Scotland’s budget.”

Conversely, the Tory candidate Douglas Ross has the affected swagger of a man who believes he is poised to unseat one of the SNP’s biggest hitters.

The constituency voted against Scottish independence in the 2014 referendum by the above-average margin of 57.6 per cent to 42.4 per cent, and had the highest percentage for Leave of any council area in Scotland in last year’s EU referendum at 49.9 per cent against 50.1 per cent for Remain.

“If the SNP doesn’t hold Moray it will be a huge blow to Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for a second independence referendum,” says Ross, who chats fresh from speaking to striking college lecturers on the picket line. It’s a campaigning opportunity not many would normally associate with a Tory politician.

But when Ross is asked about support for the strikers at Moray College, he says cautiously: “I was listening to their concerns.”

Quickly changing tack, he adds: “Angus Roberston has got a national profile, but that’s not helped Moray,” in a slight to the SNP deputy leader who held the seat with a 9,065 majority at the 2015 General Election.

“We’re getting a very strong anti-independence message on the doorsteps,” adds Ross.

HE was only elected last year as a Highlands and Islands list MSP, but Ross has faced criticism for continuing as a top-level football referee – including at Champions League matches – alongside his Holyrood role.

Robertson has accused Ross (who has declared annual earnings of between £35,001 and £40,000 for work as a “specialist assistant football referee”) of “using this campaign to seek a third job”.

But Ross, who says he would step down as an MSP if he wins in Moray, hit back, insisting refereeing is a “hobby” rather than a vocation.

Robertson repeats the attack as he leads a team of canvassers through Mosstodloch and Keith in the constituency. He says: “This election will be a choice between the arrogant, self-important bluster of the Tory candidate and my 15-year record of full-time commitment to my elected responsibilities for the people of Moray.”

Affluent Moray, home of RAF Lossiemouth, is not exactly fertile ground for the Labour Party. The party’s candidate, Jo Kirby, a 44-year-old principal history teacher at Milne’s High School in Fochabers, is running a Labour stall in Elgin, campaigning after a day’s teaching.

“People are very pleasant on the doorstep and there’s no aggro,” says Kirby. “It’s a very low-wage economy,” she says of Moray as she makes a pitch to workers in agriculture and fishing sectors that account for much of the local employment.

Kirby comes from Bolton in Lancashire – which she describes as “Peter Kay land” as the comic hails from the area – but she has lived in Moray for 16 years. She says: “I’m standing on the principal of traditional Labour values on social justice”.

However, she admits she is unlikely to squeeze into the middle in a constituency where Labour finished a poor third behind the Tories in 2015 with less than 5,000 votes.

But not expecting to make an impact at all is Liberal Democrat candidate Alex Linklater, who admits he is “a stand-in candidate”.

A former journalist for The Herald journalist, working as a books editor in Perthshire, the 48-year-old admits: “I’ve no chance, but it’s to keep alive a Liberal voice.”

There’s also an independent candidate, Anne Glen, who says she is in the process of setting up her party on the issue of “democratic scrutiny”. The retired teacher claims that “I’m going to rise between them like a phoenix”.

However, on election night the smart money is on Robertson living to fight another day.

If the SNP doesn’t hold Moray it will be a huge blow to Sturgeon’s plans for a second independence referendum