Labour is real target for Scottish Tories
It was a familiar refrain from the Prime Minister during his speech at the Scottish Conservative party conference.
Amid the bluster, all Boris Johnson’s strategy to block indyref2 boiled down to was a repeat of ‘now is not the time’ and the promise of a postbrexit briefcase of cash for Scotland, just with a Union flag attached rather than that dastardly nationalist saltire.
The attack on the SNP’S priorities is a well-trodden path for the Scottish Conservatives and one with its merits as there is little public appetite for a referendum this year. But it is built on weak foundations given his own government’s last-gasp dash to a Brexit deal following a year of unnecessary uncertainty and delay during a global pandemic.
More telling was an implicit admission from the Prime Minister that a majority would provide the basis for a mandate for a second referendum.
You cannot say ‘now is not the time’ in one breath and ‘stopping a majority will stop indyref2’ in the other unless a majority would provide the mandate the SNP seek.
Stopping indyref2 may well be the headline target for the Scottish party leader Douglas Ross and Mr Johnson, but it is clear that the real target for this election is to relegate Scottish Labour to also-rans in Holyrood.
For Mr Johnson to focus on the failings of Keir Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn rather than those of Nicola Sturgeon, who didn’t get a single mention in the speech, shows the Scottish Tories know the argument is lost with many SNP voters.