Yes, Labour is an SNP tribute act... and they should be booed off the political stage

TRUE to the saying ‘the darkest hour comes before dawn’, the final days of 2020 brought bleak news of a more transmissible strain of coronavirus and a tightening of the restrictions we’ve been living under for months.

Last year, more than 6,000 deaths in Scotland mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate. Our daily existence was disrupted and our basic freedoms curtailed.

But even in such deep darkness, we could see lights on the horizon.

A world-first vaccine was approved by UK regulators, with a second to be rolled out in Scotland from tomorrow. We also secured a comprehensive EU trade deal.

This hat-trick of good news gives cause for collective optimism.

Early January is a time for reflection – especially this one. A time to take stock and ponder our priorities. On a personal level, I am looking forward to a new addition to our family. My wife Krystle is due to give birth in June to a sibling for our 21-month-old son, Alistair.

Politically, in five months’ time Scots will be asked to cast their votes in the Holyrood election.

Now is a good time to start thinking about what that means.

To return to the Scottish parliament in May would be an immense privilege for me, and I cannot wait to get my sleeves rolled up and get stuck right in. Much needs done.

Our shattered economy, creaking NHS and once world-leading schools need urgent attention.

In my teens and early 20s, I had an abundance of opportunities. The world was open and exciting. Yet today’s youth risk becoming a ‘lost generation’ because of Covid. We cannot let that happen.

Then there are Scotland’s tragic suicides and drug deaths, the latter the highest rate in Europe.

Yet in Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP we have a tired Government which doesn’t know how to fix Scotland, nor seems interested in doing so. Even worse is their fanaticism. They genuinely believe Scotland’s many problems can be fixed by ripping us out of the UK.

Ms Sturgeon and her colleagues have repeatedly committed to holding another independence referendum, possibly this year, while we emerge blinking from the darkness of 2020. It is utter madness.

To most Scots, this tunnel-vision push for a referendum is delusional. It is evidence of a jaded SNP disconnected from reality with no understanding of families’ worries over jobs and paying the bills. For 13 years, the Nationalist Government has devoted its energy not on making Scotland better but on picking phoney fights with the UK, and twisting facts to fit their tiresome grievance agenda.

The importance of May’s election, therefore, cannot be overstated.

On the ballot paper is a stark choice between two Scotlands.

A vote for the SNP is a vote for another independence referendum, with all the rancour it will cause.

A vote for the Scottish Conservatives is a vote for optimism and opportunity with a priority on jobs, the NHS and education.

A vote for Scottish Labour is not only a wasted vote, but in fact a proxy vote for the SNP. When Richard Leonard became the party’s leader in 2017, comic book creator Mark Millar described him as ‘the most exciting thing to happen up here in decades’.

Mr Leonard is many things but exciting is not an applicable adjective. Mr Millar’s comment was actually an endorsement of Leonard’s radical Left-wing politics.

A product of the failed Jeremy Corbyn project, Mr Leonard may be a nice chap but he lacks the stomach, strength and smarts to stand up to the SNP.

After surviving numerous failed internal plots, he is somehow still standing as a zombie leader.

As one commentator put it, he is too strong to get rid of but too weak to win. Time and again we have seen his weakness. At Holyrood, the Scottish Conservatives are campaigning against the SNP’s Hate Crime Bill, which poses a sinister threat to freedom of speech.

We lodged a motion calling for it to be abandoned. But Labour surrendered to the SNP, which means the Bill remains a threat.

Last week, Holyrood hosted a debate about the UK-EU trade deal, which has been welcomed by business leaders and promises to be the foundation for a bright new future.

Ms Sturgeon spent years warning about the ‘catastrophic’ consequences of No Deal – then voted against a deal when it was delivered. The performance – which caused #NoDealNicola to start trending on Twitter – was hypocritical but entirely consistent with her instinctive grievance agenda.

What was just as galling was seeing Mr Leonard falling obediently into line behind her.

Before this symbolic vote in Holyrood, the UK Labour Party voted for the trade deal in the House of Commons. On display simultaneously were the two faces of the Labour Party… neither of which I would trust.

Given the choice to back a trade deal or side with the SNP, is anyone really surprised that Mr Leonard linked arms with the Nationalists?

When my colleague Ruth Davidson was wiping the floor with Ms Sturgeon for her Brexit deal hypocrisy, she also took a swipe at Mr Leonard, calling his party a ‘feckless, useless SNP tribute act’.

WHEN Mr Leonard tells you, as he surely will, that he intends to stand up for the Union, do not fall for it. Just a year ago, the Left-leaning Guardian reported that Scottish Labour was considering backing a second independence referendum, while UK leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he would not block a vote.

In a bid to woo back voters, they have recently been peddling vague visions of federalism.

But the Scottish parliament already wields a wide array of powers which it has failed to deploy for the improvement of Scotland.

Scottish Labour will never learn – you cannot appease the Nationalists – but Mr Leonard will continue to do just that.

My party is the only option for those who take pride in our Union and who are sickened by the SNP.

Scottish Labour once dominated Scotland but took only 18.6 per cent of the vote in the 2019 General Election and 9.3 per cent in the previous year’s European election.

So why bother even talking about them? The reason is simple. As we approach the Holyrood election, Labour will claim to be protectors of the Union. The truth is they would sell it out in a heartbeat.

Mr Leonard knows this, I know this and Ms Sturgeon knows this.

To vote for Scottish Labour, even out of some misplaced nostalgia, would be to gamble on the future of Scotland’s place in the UK.

I will focus on the issues that matter, and challenge the SNP’s record. The Scottish Conservatives will fight for a better, brighter future.