RUTH Davidson was yesterday forced on to the offensive after coming under attack from a senior official in her own party.
Jim Terras, chairman of the Selkirk Conservative and Unionist Club, called for the Scottish Conservative leader to come up with “policies or a detailed manifesto” after a leaked internal party document claimed the party's manifesto will not present its plan for Scotland, but will outline how it has changed and “what we will pressure the Scottish Government on in the next parliament”. In one Twitter post, Terras said: “Policies or a detailed manifesto would help!”
His remarks followed a leak of an internal party document which claimed the Scottish Conservative manifesto will not present its plan for Scotland, but will outline how the party has changed and “what we will pressure the Scottish Government on in the next parliament”.
Last night SNP campaign director John Swinney said the development was “a huge embarrassment” for Davidson.
“Ruth Davidson’s bold claims about what the Tories can do in this election are in danger of completely unravelling before the campaign has properly got under way,” he said.
“With a Tory UK Government fixated on more austerity and cuts over the next five years, the last thing Scotland needs is a strong Tory opposition – what we need is strong opposition to the Tories.”
Davidson yesterday rebuffed claims her party has been silent on policy, insisting she has pledged to build 100,000 new homes, hand colleges £60 million, reform education from pre-school to post-secondary, reform Police Scotland and the courts, address the “target culture” in the NHS and invest in roads and digital infrastructure.
“Maybe Jim doesn’t read the papers but I can’t say that we haven’t been putting a lot of ideas out there,” she said.
“We will have a full manifesto bursting with ideas. We have been the only people holding the Government to account on some of this stuff for months.”
Davidson said she had not seen the leaked paper's until it was published in the Daily Record, but said its central claim that “the manifesto will not be presented as Our Plan for Scotland” is “clearly false”.
Today she will seek to go on the offensive meeting parents in Perth to discuss the Scottish Government’s named person’s policy.
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