Nationalists accused of using ‘bogus poll’ in Fife

Lib Dems say SNP have painted North East Fife as two-horse race with Tories

The Liberal Democrats have accused the SNP of using a “bogus poll” to paint North East Fife as a two-horse race with the Conservatives.

Willie Rennie, the Scottish Lib Dem leader, made the complaint as the local Tory candidate savaged his fellow-pro Union party and declared he was the man to stop Stephen Gethins being returned for the Nationalists.

Mr Rennie pointed to an election leaflet distributed by Mr Gethins that states “polling and other evidence shows that it’s only the SNP who can beat the Conservatives in North East Fife.”

It then shows a graph putting the SNP on 41%, the Tories on 36% and the Lib Dems on 18%.

Rather than being from an opinion poll, these are projections of each party’s chances of winning the seat by the Electoral Calculus website.

Mr Rennie, the MSP for North East Fife, said: “The SNP are so desperate to hold onto North East Fife that they are using a bogus poll that doesn’t even reflect the actual results of recent elections. Everyone in North East Fife knows that here it is a straight choice between the Liberal Democrats and the SNP. No other result is possible.

“I won last year against the SNP, we won the council elections ahead of the SNP and even the Conservative bosses have admitted they can’t win here.”

Jenny Gilruth, SNP MSP and chairwoman of the North East Fife campaign, called the attack “pretty desperate stuff”.

She said: “Electoral Calculus was one of the few polling organisations to call the last general election.

“The evidence from North East Fife is clear that this is a straight fight between the SNP and Conservatives which is why so many Liberal voters are backing the SNP at this election.”

Tony Miklinski, the Conservative candidate who was elected as a councillor for Cupar last month, argued that all the electoral momentum was with his party.

He said: “What do the Lib Dems offer? Do they offer influence? Leadership? Consistent opposition to independence?

“The answer to all of this is no. I absolutely wouldn’t be running if I didn’t think I had a chance.

“We are trying to overturn what the Liberal Democrats had with Willie Rennie and Menzies Campbell before that. We have the arguments, the momentum and the policies to get this seat back from the SNP.”