Salmond accused of ‘playing games’ with the Gordon voters
ALEX Salmond has claimed his real battle will be with the Conservatives when he attempts to return to Westminster as MP for Gordon in May’s general election.
The former First Minister dismissed the Liberal Democrats, whose MP Sir Malcolm Bruce held the seat with a majority of 6748 in 2010, claiming the party was a “busted flush”.
He said he expected “strong competition” from the Tories.
The former First Minister, who stepped down in the wake of the Nationalists’ referendum defeat in September, was speaking on BBC Radio Scotland.
He contrasted his own 15,295 majority in the overlapping Holyrood constituency of Aberdeen- shire East with the Liberal Democrats’ 8 per cent of the vote in the Donside by-election last year, their “very poor third” in the European elections, and their fourth place in a recent Aberdeenshire Council by-election in which the SNP overturned a former Tory seat.
Mr Salmond’s comments follow claims Conservative supporters are planning to vote tactically, backing the Lib Dems in a bid to deny him the seat.
Lib Dem candidate Christine Jardine said: “Mr Salmond is always playing games. He knows the Liberal Democrats are the strongest party.
“It is a two horse race between us and the SNP and he is just trying to persuade voters that’s not the case.”
At the last UK election, Sir Malcolm Bruce, the retiring deputy leader of the Lib Dems, held the Gordon seat with 36 per cent of the vote.
The SNP, in second, achieved a 22 per cent share with Labour on 20 per cent and the fourth-placed Tories on 19 per cent.
In his interview Mr Salmond said he hoped to build a coalition with the SNP’s “progressive allies” in Plaid Cymru and the Greens to push for more powers, oppose nuclear weapons, maintain the relationship with the European Union and fight austerity.
He confirmed that the SNP would not support the Conservatives, but said he wants to work with Labour MPs who oppose the Labour leadership’s proposals to continue with some austerity policies. The SNP would back any future government on a “vote by vote” basis, he said.