John Swinney: Tories deserve a 'democratic drubbing' in General Election

SNP leader John Swinney has urged people to take part in a “Scottish national service” by using the General Election to vote Tory MPs out of office.

The Scottish First Minister will take his election campaign to the north east of Scotland on Saturday, insisting his party can “remove the remaining rump of Tory MPs” both there and in other parts of the country.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross won the Moray seat in the 2019 election, though is stepping down from Westminster at this ballot, although Andrew Bowie, a minister in the UK Government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, is fighting the West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine constituency.

Swinney said they had been “cheerleaders for a Westminster government which has imposed austerity, Brexit and a cost-of-living crisis on Scottish communities”.

The First Minister stated: “Every Scottish Tory MP who, at the last general election, backed Boris (Johnson) and backed Brexit must now face the consequences for the damage their political choices have caused.

“They deserve the democratic drubbing that is coming their way.”

Hitting out at Rishi Sunak’s party, Swinney continued: “In their desperation, the Tories have resurrected the idea of national service during this campaign but in this election people will be doing a Scottish national service by voting SNP to get rid of these remaining Tory MPs.”

But he added: “That is by no means the limit of our ambition, in Scotland we can do so much more than that.

“We can make a change that means we never face another Tory Westminster government.

“The only way to protect Scotland from Westminster folly is for decisions about Scotland to be made in Scotland, with independence.”