RUTH’S RALLYING CRY FOR THE UK
Former Tory leader’s passionate plea: Vote for us to stop SNP in their tracks
RUTH Davidson has made a direct plea to more than half a million Scots who hold the key to stopping an SNP majority.
The former Scottish Conservative leader wants to rally the support of pro-Union voters to avert the threat of another independence referendum.
In letters and emails, she is calling for them to put aside party allegiances and vote tactically for her party on the peach regional list ballot paper.
Miss Davidson said that, whoever people vote for on the constituency ballot, backing the Tories on the list can help ensure the next Scottish parliament is ‘100 per cent focused on recovery’.
It comes after the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, warned that a second independence referendum would be a ‘clear risk’ to Scotland’s coronavirus recovery and
would ‘divide our country’ at the worst possible time. In her message to pro-UK voters, Miss Davidson says the election comes down to a simple choice between another referendum or Scotland’s recovery.
Miss Davidson said: ‘We’re in the last few days of the Scottish parliament election and it’s all coming down to one simple decision.
‘Do we spend the months ahead focused on recovery from Covid – rebuilding the economy, protecting jobs, ensuring our children’s education gets fully back on track?
‘Or do we get dragged back into the divisive and damaging independence referendum the SNP say they will hold?
‘I know my answer, and I think yours too. We need to be 100 per cent focused on recovery and nothing else.
‘No matter who you vote for on your lilaccoloured constituency ballot paper, it is absolutely vital that you use your peach “party” ballot paper to vote Scottish Conservative and Unionist, to stop an SNP majority and another independence referendum.
‘So I’m asking you to use your votes on May 6 to really make sure that’s what happens. Peach party vote for the Scottish Conservatives to stop another referendum – it’s as simple as that.’
Miss Davidson was on the campaign trail with Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross yesterday, where they launched an advertising trailer to tour the country telling voters that backing the Tories on the peach ballot
‘100 per cent focused on recovery’
paper is ‘how to stop Indyref 2’. She is seen as the party’s top weapon for appealing to people who are not traditionally Tory voters.
Her letters and emails are being sent to voters who have indicated in past campaigns that their top priority is stopping independence. They include Tory voters but also those who have backed other parties, particularly Labour.
Mr Sunak yesterday made the first intervention in the Holyrood election by any UK Government minister.
He told the Mail that another referendum must be stopped in order to ‘finish the job’ in the battle against Covid-19.
He said the SNP’s plan to hold another vote on breaking up Britain would be a ‘clear risk’ to the recovery and cause uncertainty which would ‘divide our country’ at the ‘worst possible time’.
In a passionate appeal to Scots, he also said the four nations of the UK have united over the past year to face ‘the darkest of moments’ and said it is an ‘undeniable truth’ that Scotland is stronger within the United Kingdom.
An analysis of the three most recent surveys of voters by polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice yesterday indicated that an SNP majority is on a knife-edge.
The average of the three polls puts the SNP on 47 per cent on the constituency ballot, followed by the Conservatives and Labour on 21 per cent, then the Liberal Democrats on 8 per cent.
On the regional list, the SNP is on an average of 37 per cent, followed by the Conservatives on 22 per cent, Labour 17 per cent, the
Greens 9 per cent, Lib Dems 7 per cent and Alba 3 per cent.
Sir John said polling for most parties is no more than one percentage point different to early March, apart from in the case of the SNP, which has seen its list vote fall by four percentage points, due mainly to the arrival of Alex Salmond’s Alba Party.
He said: ‘The latest polls suggest that the SNP’s chances of winning an overall majority remain in the balance.’
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie yesterday said that his party can ‘build bridges’ for the next five years and ensure the parliament is not dominated by arguments over borders, currencies and the timeline for another independence referendum.
He added: ‘The pandemic has torn through our lives. We owe it to every family who has lost someone and every child who has missed out on education to try to bring the country back together and focus on the recovery.’
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said that more division could cause another ‘lost generation’ of children.
‘It’s all too clear that the SNP and Tories want to take us back to the old arguments and spend five years fighting among ourselves rather than helping the young people of Scotland reach their potential,’ he added.
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon will today step up efforts to ensure that her supporters give both votes to the party, by promising ‘immediate action’ to remobilise the NHS in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Campaigning in East Lothian and Edinburgh – two key battlegrounds against pro-Union parties – she will say: ‘Polls show that the result of this election is on a knifeedge and every vote counts.
‘By giving both votes to the SNP on Thursday, people can elect a government with the experience and the serious programme for leading Scotland out of the pandemic and protecting our NHS in the crucial period ahead.’