We stopped SNP juggernaut... now hard work starts

JUST a few thousand votes stood between Nicola Sturgeon and a majority. It was close – but the Scottish Conservatives did exactly as we promised. We stopped an SNP majority by winning more votes than ever before. Now we have to build a movement that defeats them.

We must be a stronger opposition than ever before – but our goal is far higher. We are aiming to become Scotland’s real alternative to the SNP. The road will be long and difficult. The SNP are a juggernaut.

But I am no stranger to challenges. My party thrives on them. We have defied the odds to win 100,000 more votes than in 2016. The Holyrood bubble gave us no chance. They thought we would fall to third place obscurity. To prove them wrong again, we have not only to stand up to the SNP, but win in the Scottish parliament. The hard work has already started. This group of Scottish Conservative MSPs is our strongest yet. It has an exciting blend of experience and enthusiasm.

When the SNP try to force through their agenda, at the expense of Scotland’s recovery, we will be forceful in shutting them down. We will fight harder and smarter at every level. We will not play their games.

But we must be more than the party of ‘no to the SNP and Indyref 2’. That is the crucial, more difficult step in our journey.

Our party has brought the pro-UK vote together. Now, we have to bring people back from the SNP – and win some people over to our side for the first time.

The Scottish Conservatives are the only party capable of building and delivering a five-year strategy to remove the SNP.

We believe the path to becoming Scotland’s real alternative lies in being the strong opposition that people all over the country, even many SNP voters, want.

We will work constructively with any party who puts Scotland’s recovery first to deliver our agenda – but we will not shirk away from taking on the SNP. We know what we need to do to break the yellow wall.

Many 2014 No voters, who used to vote Labour, gave Nicola Sturgeon their vote based on a perceived handling of Covid. She has already betrayed them. She promised not to use their vote to seek Indyref 2, then did just that. Those Covid voters can be won back to the pro-UK side. Strong leadership and a record of delivery can earn their vote for the Scottish Conservatives.

Breaking that yellow wall, making inroads to the SNP’s stranglehold on former Labour territory in the Central Belt, will mean more than winning over ‘middle Scotland’.

Of course we will seek to persuade middle Scotland but our real focus is ‘working Scotland’. That’s where we are gaining strength and where our future lies.

There are voters who back the SNP just now who hold conservative ideals and would switch over. They value hard work and ambition, so they don’t recognise the SNP’s antibusiness agenda. They value free speech and fair justice, so the Hate Crime Act and treating criminals lightly appals them.

They’re fiercely proud of our country, so they despise that our drug deaths are the worst in Europe – and Scotland’s shame.

We know winning over those voters will be tough, but we are ready. We can beat the odds again.