General Election campaign begins as Scottish party leaders pitch for votes

Scotland’s major political party leaders have hit the road in a push for votes, starting their six-week campaign ahead of the General Election.

On Saturday, the SNP, Scottish Labour, the Scottish Conservatives and the Scottish Liberal Democrats held events across the country.

John Swinney, Douglas Ross, Anas Sarwar and Alex Cole-Hamilton have 41 days to convince voters ahead of the July 4 polling day.

The First Minister began his campaign in Glenrothes where he focused on the SNP’s anti-austerity message.

He said: “Scotland has got to use this election to make sure we end austerity and the only party committed to ending austerity is the Scottish National Party.

“We need a strong number of SNP MPs at Westminster to make sure that’s the case. We’ve got to pressurise Westminster to end austerity. We’ve got to use the strength of the voice in Scotland to make sure that’s brought to an end.”

Earlier he defended his decision to challenge the sanction ordered against his colleague Michael Matheson, saying the process on a Holyrood committee was “damaged” by “prejudice” from one of its members.

Holyrood’s Standards Committee backed a 27-day suspension for Matheson following the row over a near-£11,000 data roaming bill on his parliamentary iPad.

He said he did not support the cross-party committee’s sanction as one of its members, Conservative Annie Wells, had previously made critical comments about Matheson’s explanation for the bill, which Swinney believes therefore prejudiced the decision.

The Conservatives have said voters will punish Swinney for his “shameful defence” of his former ministerial colleague.

He said: “I’m not going to have a situation where the Scottish Parliament delivers injustice because of the poor behaviour of Conservative MSPs. I just won’t have it. We wouldn’t tolerate it in our communities and we shouldn’t tolerate it in our Parliament.

“Now, Michael Matheson has made mistakes and Michael has got to face up to those consequences, but we don’t do that by allowing Conservative MSPs to behave in a prejudicial fashion in the Scottish Parliament.”

In Brechin, Angus, the Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said his party was going “full steam ahead to defeat the SNP in seats up and down the country”.

He said: “Here and many other seats up and down Scotland, it’s a clear choice between the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP and what I’ve been picking up very early on in this campaign on the doorsteps is how much the public have been put off by the SNP by John Swinney’s shameful defence of Michael Matheson.”

He said the Conservatives needed voters of all parties to unite behind his in the “key battles” between the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP, adding: “We want to revitalise our small communities, our towns like Brechin, here in the north east and right across Scotland, but if you get an SNP MP they’ll be obsessed with independence, if you elect a Scottish Conservative MP, and we need voters of all parties to unite behind us in these key battles between the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP, Scottish Conservatives will focus on your priorities, whereas the SNP will obsess about independence.”

The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton began his campaign in Mid-Dunbartonshire, which he said was “the closest seat in Scotland”.

He emphasised the party’s focus on offering a “real local service” and “fighting for the issues that people care about”.

He said: “I started today in Mid-Dunbartonshire, the closest seat in Scotland where we are 149 votes behind the SNP and we have knocked every door in that constituency, more and more people across the country are turning back to the Liberal Democrats because only we offer real local service, focused on getting access to your GP at the first time of asking, dentistry that offers NHS care in your locality, lifting schools back up the international league tables and taking the sewage out our rivers, that’s what the LibDems are fighting this election on.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar visited a campaign event in Wishaw and said his party gave voters the opportunity to “deliver the change Scotland needs”.

He said: “We’ll make clear what that change means for people and their families across the country. What it means to bring down their mortgages by delivering economic stability, what it means for their pay packet by making work pay and delivering a genuine living wage, how we realise Scotland’s full energy potential by having GB Energy a publicly owned energy generation company headquartered here in Scotland, and how we close NHS waiting lists by closing the tax loopholes and putting more money into our NHS.

“That’s the campaign for change, not protest, not sending a message but sending a government delivering for people in Scotland.”