The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
SNP candidate and former Runrig star Pete Wishart serenades First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during her visit to Blairgowrie yesterday. Picture: Angus Findlay.
Parties vying to be seen as main rival to SNP in key contest in June 8 election
The SNP have been mocked for distributing a campaign leaflet suggesting the party’s candidate in North East Fife will lose his seat.
Stephen Gethins commands a 4,344vote majority in the constituency – but both the Tories and Liberal Democrats are confident of toppling him next month.
Analysis of how council election votes could impact the June 8 ballot in each constituency was published on an SNP leaflet distributed in Edinburgh West.
It shows North East Fife changing hands from SNP to Lib Dem.
A Lib Dem source described the leaflet as an “absolute belter” adding: “Gethins must be furious.”
Meanwhile, a row is brewing over which party is the main challenger to the SNP in North East Fife.
The Lib Dems are confident their candidate Elizabeth Riches, a former Fife councillor, can overturn Mr Gethins’ majority. As evidence, they point to their Scottish leader Willie Rennie taking the seat off the SNP in the Holyrood vote last year and a higher first preference vote share in the council elections in the area.
Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader and North East Fife MP, accused Nicola Sturgeon’s party of misleading the public in another leaflet about the contest being a twohorse race between the SNP and the Conservatives.
“We can do without any more fake news from the SNP in an election as important as this,” Lord Campbell said.
An SNP spokesman said: “This is desperate stuff from the Lib Dems who are panicked their support is collapsing even further. Stephen Gethins has been a strong and effective local MP for North East Fife, which is why former Lib Dems are switching their support to the SNP.”
The Tories, quoting Electoral Calculus analysis, say they are the only serious challenger to the SNP in the former Lib Dem stronghold. The poll prediction website rates the chances of the Conservatives winning at 40%, compared with 43% for the SNP and 17% for the Lib Dems.
Conservative candidate Tony Miklinski said: “This is exactly what we have suspected since the Fife Council results two weeks ago when the number of Conservative seats shot up from three to 15. The Scottish Conservatives are gathering momentum across Scotland.”