NICOLA Sturgeon will take to the skies in the final weekend of election campaigning, with the SNP leader to visit six separate constituencies today.
Sturgeon will use a branded helicopter – dubbed the “Nicolopter” – to travel between key constituencies ahead of the June 8 General Election.
As polling day nears, the shrinking Conservative lead over Labour is prompting speculation the SNP could become involved in a progressive alliance at Westminster.
The SNP will struggle to match the record 56 of 59 Scottish seats it won in 2015. However, Sturgeon insisted that “now more than ever, we need strong SNP voices standing up for Scotland at Westminster and standing up to the Tories”.
The First Minister will campaign in Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East, Argyll and Bute, North Ayrshire, Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock, Dumfries and Galloway and Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale.
She said: “While the Tories remain on course to win the election UK-wide, Scotland could be pivotal in reducing the size of their majority. Electing strong SNP voices is the only way to keep the Tories in check.”
At the same time thousands of activists from the main parties will be hitting the streets across Scotland ahead of Thursday’s vote.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale will be campaigning in East Lothian – one of the seats her party is hoping to win back from the SNP.
Meanwhile former chancellor and Better Together chief Alistair Darling will be speaking to voters in East Renfrewshire, the constituency Labour’s Jim Murphy held between 1997 and 2015.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson will rally party activists in the north-east, while Willie Rennie of the LibDems will race supporters along a beach in St Andrews, recreating a famous scene from the film Chariots of Fire.
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