The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
SNP’s depute leader ‘is facing Ed Balls moment’
ELECTION: 50-50 prospect of senior Nationalist losing seat, says Davidson
The Tories have a 50-50 chance of toppling the SNP’s depute leader in what would be a “real Ed Balls moment” for Scotland, says Ruth Davidson.
The Scottish Conservative leader said the general election fight for Angus Robertson’s Moray seat will be a “Titanic battle” between her party and the Nationalists.
Mr Robertson, who is also the SNP’s leader in Westminster, secured a 9,065- vote majority over his Tory rival Douglas Ross in 2015, who he will be up against on June 8.
But Ms Davidson said their chances of winning the seat are “close to 50%”.
Asked about the symbolism of sacking one of Westminster’s political heavyweights, she said: “I think should Angus Robertson’s seat fall, it’s a real Ed Balls moment for Scotland.”
She said he is likely to lose his Moray seat, which had the highest Brexit vote in Scotland, because of simmering anger from Remain voters.
Ms Davidson said: “I don’t think anyone in the press has actually 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 for independence. “People are furious about it.” Labour’s former shadow chancellor Ed Balls, who went on to become a Strictly Come Dancing star, was defeated by the Tories in his Morley and Outwood constituency in 2015.
Campaigning in Leith, Ms Sturgeon said she was “absolutely not” worried about losing her number two on June 8.
She said Mr Robertson is a “fantastic” deputy and local MP, adding: “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.”
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale encouraged the public to use their vote as a protest against the Tories and the SNP.
Speaking at a campaign event in Edinburgh, she said the upcoming elections are about two things, “standing up for the public services that we all value, which the Tories want to decimate and sending a message to Nicola Sturgeon that the people of Scotland don’t want another divisive independence referendum.”