TheresaMaydodgesthe voters in warehouse visit
Political Correspondent HE Theresa May roadshow rolled into Scotland and just as quickly rolled back out again.
She flew in, fresh from a press conference in London on national security after the latest terror attack, to the Scottish capital and boarded the battle bus.
In a removal company warehouse on the edge of Edinburgh, the party faithful gathered, with the waiting Scottish media. We needn’t have bothered. While other party leaders were meeting voters and engaging with the public, Ms May’s visit was as closed as you could manage. And managed it was.
We are ushered under the roller shutter into a dark unit with wooden storage crates stacked all around.
Then the big blue “strong and stable” battle bus, the one that used to be the “take back control” “£350m a week for the NHS” Brexit fib bus, blocks out the light.
“Now remember to cheer” said one party aide, to the willing band of placard holders who gave up an afternoon to provide the TV cameras with a crowd.
Out steps the Prime Minister, with Ruth Davidson leading the way, bounding on to the little makeshift stage like she was playing to a full house at the Hydro.
She delivers a short speech to
Twarm up the crowd, praising the UK party leader and telling Nicola Sturgeon to “stick her referendum” – always a crowd pleaser.
Then it is the main event. The Prime Minister gives us the ‘SNP and Labour are in cahoots’ line.
She said: “The reality is if we lose just six seats, the government loses its majority and that will mean Jeremy Corbyn in Number 10 and Nicola Sturgeon pulling the strings from Bute House.” “Boo” went the compliant crowd. Jeremy Corbyn, she said, “would negotiate on a second referendum which he said ‘is absolutely fine by me’. I think he’s going to find out there’s a different view from the Scottish people.”
Oh, how they roared right on cue at that one.
It is a reworking of David Cameron’s 2015 line of Ed Miliband dancing to Alex Salmond’s tune. It’s an old favourite and the crowd like it.
She finished with the campaign message “give me a mandate” to UScampaign style whoops and hollers.
A few minutes for questions from the media, met with quick evasive answers usually involving blaming either someone called Corbyn or Sturgeon and then she is gone.
In total the whole ‘event’ lasted around 15 minutes.
The Prime Minister’s justification for refusing head to head debates with Corbyn and other party leaders was she preferred to be out around the country meeting the people.
In Edinburgh today, not a voter was met and not a baby was kissed.
You could almost think she was avoiding them. LABOUR has branded the Tory campaign “divisive” and drawn parallels with Donald Trump’s US Presidential campaign last year.
The party’s business manager James Kelly said Ruth Davidson’s claims that Theresa May will ‘make Britain great again’ was embarrassing.
He said: “Ruth Davidson’s stealing Donald Trump’s slogan was a toe-curling moment, but both the Tory campaign and the Trump campaign have sought to divide our society.
“Theresa May and Ruth Davidson both support slashing the social security safety net for the poorest, tax cuts for the richest and scapegoating immigrants.”
He added that on Brexit there were more similarities between Trump and the Tory Brexiteers.
He added: “And the Tories are responsible for Brexit, which was supported by Trump, which handed Nicola Sturgeon a fresh grievance in her bid to break-up Britain.
“On June 8, Scots can send Nicola Sturgeon a message to abandon her plans for a divisive second independence referendum without endorsing the vile policies of the Tories.
“A vote for Labour on June 8 is a vote to end austerity and oppose a divisive second independence referendum.”
After Tories campaigned at a removals warehouse in Edinburgh, he added: “The only way to ensure there are removal vans outside Downing Street on Friday morning is to vote Labour on Thursday.”