MP Cameron: ‘Voters losing trust in SNP’
VOTERS in Scotland are losing trust in the SNP amid the ongoing police investigation and record in the Scottish Government, according to one of the party’s former MPs.
Lisa Cameron, who moved to the Conservatives in October last year after falling out with the SNP on a number of matters, gave her views in her first major newspaper interview since crossing the House. She is the first SNP MP to defect to the Tories.
Dr Cameron said: “I think there are issues of trust and competence. You’ve got people being arrested and questioned by the police. Concerns are being raised.
“I am not going to comment on the outcome but it is an issue the public are aware of.
“You have a campervan arriving that I didn’t know existed, which was supposedly a campaign vehicle.”
She said: “When you tap doors, people are asking ‘how do we beat the SNP in this seat’. Some of them are former SNP voters, some people say they won’t vote.
“I think even within SNP voters, for those who really want independence, that they have not done enough on that. They maybe have focused too much on progressive idealistic type politics.
“So I feel Scotland is turning a page on nationalism. A lot of people are moving back to where they started before 2014. They are moving back to left or right of centre and I think that is what will happen at the election.”
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, her husband Peter Murrell, the SNP’s former chief executive, and Colin Beattie, the SNP’s former national treasurer, were arrested in the ongoing Operation Branchform into their party’s finances last year.
All three were later released without charge pending further inquiries.
Ms Sturgeon later told journalists she was “innocent of any wrongdoing”.
She also went on to say voters were concerned over the provision of education, about NHS waiting times and the delays to two ferries being built at Ferguson’s shipyard in Port Glasgow.
Loss prediction
POLLS suggest that the SNP could lose some of their seats in Glasgow and the central belt at the General Election expected next year while also facing a challenge in rural Scotland and the Highlands from the Conservatives.
But they still mostly point to the SNP winning the General Election in Scotland with Labour coming second and the Conservatives third.
She will step down as an MP at the General Election and defended her decision not to resign as an MP after moving to the Conservatives – as the SNP called for.
“I have never been busier as an MP. I have a fifth more emails than I’ve ever had. People have not stopped coming to me as a Conservative MP,” she said.
“Business have been in touch who weren’t in touch before. I’ve had constituents who are Conservative who got in touch who didn’t before, and I still hear from and represent my SNP-supporting constituents.”
A survey published by Ipsos
You’ve got people being arrested and questioned by the police. Concerns are being raised