Yousaf to campaign in Scottish Tory leader’s seat

First Minister Humza Yousaf will campaign in the Moray seat of Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross as he pushes to make Scotland “Tory-free” after the next election.

The SNP has set its sights on Mr Ross’ party, with Labour riding high in the polls ahead of an election expected this year.

Mr Yousaf will appear in Moray on Saturday alongside the Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey candidate Graham Leadbitter, visiting a local solar company, before heading to Fraserburgh with Aberdeenshire North and Moray East candidate Seamus Logan.

Mr Ross has held the seat since 2017, but plans to stand down at the next election to focus on Holyrood.

Ahead of the visit, the First Minister said it was time to “rid Scotland of Tory MPs”.

“After over a decade of damaging Tory Westminster governments that have delivered a broken Brexit Britain, driven down living standards and hammered households with austerity and cuts – Scotland deserves so much better,” he said.

“As the most recent poll underlines, we have the chance to make Scotland Tory-free at the general election and the only way to do that is by voting SNP.”

Mr Yousaf also said that “despite the increasing list of screeching U-turns from Keir Starmer’s Labour Party”, they don’t need Scotland to win the keys to Downing Street.

Speaking as Scottish Labour held its conference in Glasgow, the First Minister added: “Labour doesn’t need Scotland, but Scotland needs the SNP to ensure our voice is heard.

“I am delighted to join activists across the country today, campaigning for our brilliant SNP Westminster candidates and delivering our positive message for building a better future for everyone in Scotland.

“With both the Tories and Labour Party committed to the broken Brexit Britain economy that has led to a recession, only the SNP offers people across Scotland the right to choose a stronger, fairer and prosperous future as an independent country.”

Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said: “Humza Yousaf is clearly hoping that those in remote and coastal communities in the north and north east will simply forget how his nationalist coalition have betrayed them.

“But voters in those areas are not daft. They are paying heavily for the SNP’s failure to upgrade the A9 and A96, their failure to provide adequate broadband or enough GPs, their abandoning of Scotland’s North Sea oil and gas industry and their plans to decimate fishing communities with brutal curbs, which led to a furious backlash and, however temporarily, a U-turn.

“The urban-centric SNP have no understanding of rural Scotland. Voters in those areas know that only the Scottish Conservatives can beat the SNP and move the focus away from the nationalists’ independence obsession and onto their priorities.”