Battle lines drawn as SNP urge voters to ‘send a message’ to Boris Johnson

the council elections as Nicola Sturgeon urged Scots to “send a message” to Boris Johnson and the Scottish Conservatives insisted voters are more concerned with local issues than partygate.

The First Minister said the election had taken on “added importance” following the fines dished out to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak for breaking lockdown rules.

She launched the SNP’S campaign bus in Dundee, with text on the side of the vehicle asking voters to “send boris a message, ease the squeeze”.

Ms Sturgeon said: “If anything, this election has taken on added importance in recent days because of what we’ ve seen develop around the prime minister.

“The prime minister has been found to be a serial breacher of Covid rules and has also repeatedly misled the House of Com battle lines have been drawn in mons, and yet is refusing to accept any consequences for that. so this election is an opportunity for people to send a message to Boris Johnson that they find his behaviour and response completely unacceptable.

“And of course it is an opportunity to put the cost of living centre stage .”

Mr Ross said he was “very optimistic” going into the May 5 vote.

His party’s campaign launch was overshadowed by news of the Downing Street fines, with the Scottish Tory leader insisting it would be wrong to remove the PM from office during the war in Ukraine.

He previously led calls for Mr Johnson to re sign, but u-turned following Russia’s invasion.

Mr Ross said: “I think voters can make the difference between national issues which are rightly angering people. And I’m angry. I think the Prime Minister’s actions were completely unacceptable. is aid that back in January and had it not been for a war in Ukraine, my position would be the same.

“But I also have to look at the situation where we have atrocities happening in Europe and innocent men, women and children being murdered on a daily basis by war criminal Vladimir Putin and his troops.

“These national issues are clearly dominating much of the national coverage, but people also know that they’ re electing local councillors for the next five years.”

He added: “I’m very optimistic. We have great candidates right across the country. We’re the only party standing a candidate in every ward in mainland Scotland.”

Mr ross said there is “no doubt that national issues do come up” with voters, but claimed they are more concerned with local priorities such as potholes and education standards.

He added: “That’s why we’re saying it should be about local priorities, not the nationalist priority – because we know Nicola Sturgeon will use every vote for the SNP as another proxy vote for her to hold another referendum to divide the country all over again and split us up from the rest of the UK.”

Launching his party’s manifesto on Thursday, Mr Ross said Tory councillors would be “totally focused” on helping pupils, fixing local roads and protecting services, while keeping council tax rise slow.

The manifesto included a pledge to pressure the Scottish Government to “fund a pilot extension to the school day, to further help pupils to catch up on missed learning”.

Mr Ross said teachers would be given extra pay to compensate for additional hours worked.

Speaking at a campaign event in Clark st on, EastRenfrewshire, he said: “i absolutely know the huge workload that teachers have gone through over the last two years. The work that teachers have done throughout the pandemic and continued to do has been absolutely immense.”

He added :“[ teachers] won’ t be asked to work for longer in this pilot without any remuneration. They would be paid for the extra hours they do.

“In some cases, it maybethey can extend their day to support more pupils throughout the day because they are being asked to do an awful lot in a constrained amount of time when young people are preparingfor exams and need as much help as possible.”

Ms Sturgeon met SNP candidates on top of Dundee Law on yesterday as she launched the party’s campaign bus, which will tour Scotland in the 21 days ahead of May 5. It is due to stop in nine council areas including Dundee, Perth and Kinross, Angus and Edinburgh over the bank holiday weekend.

Speaking to The Scotsman, she rejected suggestions her administration had under funded councils.

Local government funding reduced by 4.2 per cent in real terms between 2013/14 and 2020/21, once Covid cash was excluded, according to the Accounts Commission.

Ms Sturgeon said: "I think if you look at the total local government financial settlement, we have, within the budgets we have got, prioritised local services to thebes to four ability ."

She added: "This is a difficult financial climate for the Scottish Government, a difficult financial climate for councils, I don't deny that.

"But we continue to take decisions that seek to maximise the resources going to councils, and therefore their ability to prioritise local services."

Earlier, she said the Scottish Government had offered council san extra £120 million before the recent budget, ahead of their ask of £100m.

The First Minister said her administration had “already taken a number of steps” to combat the cost of living crisis, including doubling the scottish Child Payment benefit.

She said: "We'll do everything we can, but most of the powers, most of the resources to help here, do lie at Westminster, and we need to see the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, who are showing themselves to be woefully out of touch here, step up and do much more. And this election is an opportunity for people to send a message that that's what they want to see."