I’ll take a wrecking ball to the YELLOW wall, says Tory Ross

He targets SNP equivalent of Labour’s ‘red wall’

DOUGLAS Ross will today vow to smash the SNP ‘yellow wall’ by speaking up for working class communities who have been failed by the Nationalists.

The Scots Tory leader will tell his party conference in Manchester that there are large swathes of the country who feel neglected.

He will argue Nicola Sturgeon is ‘detached’ and ‘out of touch’ with communities, who feel Holyrood ‘largely ignores them and belittles their values’.

He will cite the Hate Crime Act, the ‘decriminalisation’ of possession of Class A drugs, and the ‘shambolic’ vaccine passport introduction, as evidence the SNP Government is now out of touch with the needs of working class Scots.

Addressing a fringe event at the conference, Mr Ross will tell them: ‘Working class people across Scotland look to Holyrood and see a Scottish parliament that does not represent them, that largely ignores them and belittles their values.

‘There is a representation gap for working people.

‘Until recently, many of them had turned away from politics entirely. They used to have a party to vote for, but it left them behind years ago.’

At its own conference in Brighton, Labour had set its sights on winning back some of the 40 Scottish seats lost to the SNP in the past decade – the first ‘red wall’ to fall.

However, Mr Ross, who gained 100,000 more votes in May’s election, believes it is the Conservatives who are ready to challenge the SNP in seats across the country.

‘My party will not look backwards. We are looking forward, to the next wall to fall,’ he will say.

‘It won’t be red this time. It will be SNP yellow.’

Scotland has the worst drugs deaths record in the western world, while the NHS is in crisis, education standards have fallen and the economy has trailed behind the rest of the UK, even before Brexit and Covid.

Mr Ross will argue: ‘Nicola Sturgeon has become detached from working class communities scarred by drug deaths and marred by all the other failings that her government is too distracted to tackle.

‘She has become out of touch, talking down to everyone who doesn’t speak at her supposedly higher level of intelligence.

‘No government for working people would bring in the Hate Crime Act.

‘No government for working people would treat crack cocaine less seriously than littering.

‘No government for working people would mess football fans and clubs around with a shambolic vaccine passport plan.’

It was the collapse of the ‘red wall’ – when working class, northern English constituents voted Conservative rather than Labour, for the first time in years – in the 2019 election, that gave Boris Johnson his majority.

Now, there is speculation that the next General Election will be held in 2023, with the Tories eyeing yet more gains.

Mr Ross will say: ‘In the (Scottish) election this year, we won 100,000 more votes. Those votes came from communities, like where I grew up.

‘And we know those votes came from communities that fiercely and proudly consider themselves working class.’

Last night, Nationalist MSP Neil Gray said: ‘While the First Minister and SNP Government are focused on navigating through this pandemic and working to protect people’s livelihoods, Douglas Ross and the Scottish Tories continue to fall into line behind Boris Johnson to impose devastating policies that will push people into hardship and poverty.’

‘Representation gap for working people’