Carlaw says party will take seats off SNP despite polls
THE Scottish Tories yesterday claimed they can gain seats at the forthcoming General Election, despite polls suggesting they face huge losses.
Launching his election campaign, Scottish party leader Jackson Carlaw pledged to deliver a ‘referendumfree period’ by taking more seats off the SNP.
Mr Carlaw has made long-serving Nationalist MP Pete Wishart’s Perth and North Perthshire seat one of his top targets for the December 12 poll.
He believes his party can benefit from promising to stand up to Nicola Sturgeon and reject her renewed bid to break up Britain, allowing the country to move on from Brexit.
The Tory claim came as SNP leaders attempted to downplay their chances of making major gains.
Recent polls have suggested the Tories could face major losses north of the Border amid concerns about Boris Johnson and his approach to Brexit.
Writing in today’s Scottish Daily Mail, Mr Carlaw said: ‘On the one hand, there is Sturgeon and Corbyn plotting more referendums, more division and more uncertainty for Scotland and for the UK.
‘On the other – alone – is a Conservative party which wants to put that division behind us, and let the country move on.’
He said he believes the Tories can win more than the current 13 seats it holds north of the Border because many Scots want to deliver ‘another dose of reality’ to Nicola Sturgeon. Mr Carlaw said: ‘Here in Scotland, an election gives us a chance to show the SNP establishment in Edinburgh that they can’t take people for granted – and they need to listen, for once, to the majority who don’t want another referendum.’ The Eastwood MSP yesterday chose to launch his party’s campaign in Perth – as he believes it can overturn Mr Wishart’s slender majority of just 21 from the 2017 General Election.
At the launch event, Mr
Carlaw said: ‘We’ve now fought several referendums. I’ve respected the result of them all, win or lose.
‘Nicola Sturgeon has never respected the result of any referendum other than the illegal one in Catalonia.
‘As we go forward from here, Scottish Conservatives are promising a referendum-free period ahead.. we have to end the division and keep Scotland in the UK.’
A Panelbase poll published this month puts the SNP on 39 per cent, the Tories on 21 per cent, Labour on 19 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 13 per cent.
Polling expert Sir John Curtice calculates that, based on the findings, the SNP would win 48 seats – up from 35 – with the Scottish Tories falling from 13 to five.
Yesterday, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford attempted to downplay expectations of his party making major gains, saying: ‘Nobody expects the SNP to do anything other than remain the biggest party.’
Meanwhile, Mr Carlaw yesterday backed former Tory leader Ruth Davidson’s decision to abandon plans to take a lucrative lobbying job.
He said: ‘She’s taken the right decision. She’s putting parliament and the interests of parliament first.’
‘Put division behind us’