It was this big…
On the first day of the Scottish Parliament election campaign, Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie was looking relaxed on the beach at South Queensferry as he revealed plans to raise teachers’ pay
Sarwar said he was in favour of a “more progressive tax system” and that it was clear that a series of major initiatives required for the recovery would “cost money”.
The Scottish Labour leader has signalled his support for tax rises for the richest people to help the nation bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic.
Anas Sarwar said he was in favour of a “more progressive tax system” and that it was clear that a series of major initiatives required for the recovery would “cost money”.
During the leadership campaign, he backed plans for a 5 per cent tax rise for people earning more than £150,000 a year and a 2 per cent rise for those on more than £100,000.
Asked if this would be his policy going into the Holyrood election, he replied: “You’ll have to wait for our manifesto that will be published in due course.
“But on the principle, I absolutely support a more progressive tax system. If we are going to do the big things that we want to do, that is going to cost money.
“If we do want to invest in our economy, if we do want to get people back into work, if we do want to support businessanas es with a transition fund to get them back to pre-covid levels, if we do want to do a catch up programme in our NHS… if we do want to invest in our education system in a comeback plan for children – that is going to cost money, and we are going to have a progressive tax system in order to pay for it.”
Mr Sarwar also said he planned to put recovery from the pandemic “front and centre” in the election campaign.
As part of that, his party has submitted plans to the Electoral Commission that could see the slogan “Anas Sarwar – Labour’s National Recovery Plan” appear on the ballot papers.
While the SNP and the Tories have put their leaders’ names on ballot papers before, it would be the first time Labour has done so.
Mr Sarwar said: "I want to unite Scotland around a national recovery plan that’s going to build a stronger and fairer Scotland. We want to put the national recovery plan front and centre of this election campaign and demonstrate confidence as well – I know Nicola Sturgeon has put her name on the ballot paper, I know in previous elections Ruth Davidson has put her name on the ballot paper, I want to express confidence in putting my own name on the ballot paper and give people the direct choice between going back to the old arguments or a new kind of politics, with a different kind of leader and a different focus for our parliament as we come through and recover from c ovid.
“This is a very different kind of election and we are not going to have the same level of interaction, so the burden of the campaign is naturally going to fall all on to the individual party leaders.”
He said his party would offer an alternative for Scots who were faced with "a failing government on one side and a game playing, lacking in ideas opposition on the other”.
A Survation poll published yesterday showed Scottish Labour in second place in the election run behind the SNP with 24 seats.
"We don’t have to go back to those old arguments, we don’t have to fight each other. We don’t have to have a parliament where we spend more time shouting at each other than delivering the kind of change we need across our country.”
He admitted he has had no personal contact with Ross, a day after he paid tribute to outgoing Tory leader Ruth Davidson in parliament. He said he had known Davidson and Nicola Sturgeon “a very very long time”.
He said: “I actually don’t think I’ve ever spoken to Douglas Ross. I think it tells you something around the no-confidence vote, that if they were actually serious about it and weren’t just using it for political gain, perhaps they would have spoken to other political parties and other political leaders.
"I don’t know Douglas, I’m sure he is a perfectly pleasant and nice human being, I look forward to meeting him when he comes back to the Scottish Parliament. I have obviously met him before, but never really had a proper dialogue and exchange with him, but in the same spirit, I am happy to have human relationships and personal relationships with people from other political parties .” meanwhile, Ross has defended his plans to work as both an MP and MSP.
The Scottish Conservative leader has dismissed criticism of doing both roles, pointing to former first minister Alex Salmond and others who were “dual mandate” parliamentarians. Sitting as the MP for Moray since 2017, he pledged to continue the role despite now being on the MSP list for the Highlands & Islands.
Speaking with journalists yesterday after launching the Conservative campaign, Mr Ross said: “I will continue as the Member of Parliament for Moray. It’s my home area.
"It’s the only constituency I’ve ever stood for and I was proud to be elected the MP for Moray in 2017,defeating the-then SNP leader at Westminster and then being re-elected in 2019. And of course dual mandates are not new. In the first Scottish Parliament in 1999, a number of Scottish Labour MPS stood for Holyrood, were elected and became government ministers and continued to be MPS until the following election in 2001.“And the SNP have history with a former MP who was an MSP, party leader and first minister of Scotland.”
Poll suggests Tories will finish in third place
The Scottish Conservatives could lose their position as the second largest party at Holyrood as the SNP secures an outright majority of seats, a new poll suggests.
The Survation study of 2,000 adults, commissioned by The Courier, also found that a majority of Scots would only vote for independence if membership of the EU was guaranteed.
Conducted between March 11 and March 18 - before James Hamilton’s report cleared the First Minister of breaching the ministerial code - the poll found the SNP would win 50 per cent of the constituency vote and a 39 per cent share of the regional list second vote.
While the Tories would take 21 per cent of of the constituency vote - compared to Labour’s 20 per cent - Anas Sarwar’s party would take slightly more of the regional
Conor Marlborough
list vote (20 per cent versus 19 per cent).
A seat projection based on the survey results would see the Tories’ share of seats collapse by almost a third, down from 31 to just 22
At the same time, the SNP would win a small outright majority of 67 - while Labour returned to Holyrood as the main opposition on 24 seats.
The projection would see the Scottish Greens gain the most new seats of any single party – an increase of five – bringing their total to 11.
The Lib Dems would take fifth place overall, retaining their current tally of five seats.
Polling expert, Professor Sir John Curtice said of the results: “There really is a close race for second place.
“Basically 27 per cent of current SNP voters say that they might vote Labour, but only 6 per cent say they’d vote Conservative.
“Equally, 23 per cent of Labour voters and 24 per cent of Lib Dem voters say they might vote for the SNP.
“The dirty secret of this election is going to be, for the UK government to avoid the embarrassment of the SNP having an overall majority, they are relying on the Labour Party to deliver it.”
Despite the good news predicted for the SNP, the polling suggested that enthusiasm for Nicola Sturgeon and the party in general is not translating into greater support for Scottish independence.
Survation’s survey found 51 per cent of voters would say No if asked “should Scotland be an independent country?”.
But, if membership of the European Union was guaranteed, support for Yes rose to 53 per cent.
Professor Curtice said the row over the Alex Salmond inquiry seemed to have had little effect on the numbers.
“All the polls are roughly around 50/50 at the moment and there is increasing evidence the whole row has not made much difference.
“Support for the country is split down the middle of the country and has been split down the middle since February.
“It’s clearly lower than it was last year, but it hasn’t really moved during the course of recent weeks.”
He added: “The support for independence amongst people who voted remain goes up from 54 per cent in the standard question to 59 per cent, whereas the leave voters basically aren’t moved.
“So it attracts more remain voters, which is already the case, support for independence is quite heavily structured by whether people voted remain or leave in 2016.”