Tories head north to woo Scots voters
David Cameron is taking the shadow cabinet to Scotland today, as the Conservatives unofficially kick-off their campaign for May’s Scottish elections.
The Tory leader yesterday admitted his party had failed to provide a centre-right alternative for voters north of the border, letting the Scottish National Party (SNP) take a lead on traditional Tory issues.
But today he will join shadow ministers in visiting cities across Scotland to prove last year’s pledge not to take Scotland “for granted”. Mr Cameron himself is expected to announce a £100 million investment in drug rehabilitation in Edinburgh this afternoon.
In an interview with The Herald yesterday, the Witney MP acknowledged the Tories had “let down people in Scotland”, saying the current choice for voters was between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, who are now running things, or the SNP.
“Every country in Europe of a decent size has a sensible, moderate, reasonable centre-right party as a prospective party of government and Scotland doesn’t at the moment. I want to make sure that party is the Conservative party,” he told the newspaper.
He added: “I see the Scottish nationalists here in the Westminster parliament defending the Scottish regiments, talking about rural post offices as if the Scottish nationalists could do anything to help save the Scottish regiments or care about the countryside.”
The Conservatives have just one Scottish MP and only 17 MSPs out of a possible 129, but Mr Cameron has pledged to fight back. He started in September by apologising for Margaret Thatcher’s imposition of the poll tax, and for opposing devolution.
However, three months before the Holyrood elections, opinion polls show the Tories are firmly in fourth place, behind the SNP, Labour and Lib Dems. And yesterday the single Scottish Tory MP, David Mundell, told the BBC: “We have to change.
“We’ve got to become a party which people feel is in touch with the issues they are concerned about in Scotland – health, education, transport, the economy – and we are still struggling to do that.”
Annabel Goldie, leader of the Tories in the Scottish parliament, told epolitix.com she believed Mr Cameron had the charisma to help change the party’s fortunes.
“On his last visit when he and I were walking along Princes Street in Edinburgh I thought I was in the company of George Clooney or Ewan McGregor, because people were rushing forward – they wanted to speak to him, they wanted their photograph taken with him,” she said.
However, SNP spokesman Bruce Crawford warned: “Neither a new leader nor a glitzy David Cameron led PR campaign will help the failing Tories in Scotland as their anti-Scottish policies means they now face are facing political oblivion .
“In May the people of Scotland have the chance to vote for an SNP government led by Alex Salmond who, unlike the anti-Scottish Tories, will stand up for Scotland and focus on building Scotland’s success.”
