End ‘Salmond scandal’ now demands Ross
Nicola Sturgeon has urged the need for “experienced leadership” in her party’s official election campaign launch as the Scottish Conservatives are set to counter by highlighting the lack of resignations and sackings linked to the Alex Salmond affair.
All of Scotland’s major political parties have made their first official pitch to voters in the wake of Holyrood entering its pre-election recess period yesterday.
The official campaign is allowed to begin from today.
Ms Sturgeon used the moment to declare the SNP would run a campaign “overflowing with optimism and hope for a better Scotland”, claiming opposition parties “have made it very clear over these past few weeks that they are not interested in governing or leading”.
“Our campaign will be the polar opposite,” she said.
"It will be about raising up, not tearing down. It will be overflowing with optimism and hope for a better Scotland.
“Over these next six weeks we will set out our plans to protect the NHS, for a National Care Service and to protect and create jobs as we get on with the job of building a better Scotland.”
Scottish Conservatives leader Douglas Ross, who will launch his party’s election campaign in Aberdeen today, will instead claim the absence of resignations surrounding the Salmond inquiry shows a “lack of democratic accountability”.
He will say: “The SNP have shut down scrutiny, kept crucial evidence secret and shunned any and all accountability throughout the Alex Salmond scandal. Nobody has resigned, nobody has been sacked, nobody has been held accountable.
“This lack of democratic
accountability has occurred while they still need to rely on the Greens to prop them up. With an SNP majority, the situation doesn’t bear thinking about. [Deputy First Minister] John Swinney only asked law officers to release legal advice when opposition parties united and his job was on the line.”
Mr Ross will also criticise the SNP’S “obsession” with another independence referendum during a pandemic and call for unionist voters to “unite” behind his party to stop an SNP majority, which he states
would see a second referendum take place.
Polls show the SNP’S chances of a majority are on a knifeedge, with recent surveys suggesting the party will be within a few thousand votes of a majority.
The Scottish Conservatives are polling in second place more often than their main challengers for second, Scottish Labour, but with a reduced return of MSPS following the vote on May 6. Anas Sarwar, the new Labour leader, said the Conservatives
were “happy to return to the failed economic model precovid” and urged people to vote for his party for a parliament “focused on recovery”.
He said: “Over the next six weeks and beyond, I will focus on what unites us, not what divides us.”
Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: “Scottish Liberal Democrats will go into this campaign putting the recovery from the pandemic first.”