A CONSERVATIVE MP appeared surprised after learning that the SNP would make any future General Election campaign about independence.
Ross Thomson – one of the Scottish Tory MPs who risks being wiped out at any UK election in the near future, according to a recent YouGov poll – was appearing on Politics Live this lunchtime with the SNP leader at Westminster Ian Blackford.
READ MORE: YouGov poll: SNP will win every Scottish Tory seat in UK election
READ MORE: The Scottish Tories face a wipeout but the SNP are alienating Scots
The MP for Aberdeen South claimed the SNP lost seats to the Conservatives at the 2017 General Election because people “were so angry and frustrated that having clearly expressed their will to stay within the United Kingdom in 2014 it was being ignored” .
He picked Blackford up for saying that the voice of Scotland must be listened to, saying that the SNP pick and choose only the people agree with them.
“We’ve just had an election a few weeks ago,” responded Blackford, alluding to the European elections in May, adding: “the EU election. We won that election, we won 38% of the vote.
“The Tories got 11% and they went with the message ‘Say no to the SNP and indyref2’.
“You got thumped in that election,” Blackford put to Thomson. “The people time and time again in elections are voting for the SNP, we have a majority [in the Scottish Parliament] together with our colleagues in the Greens.
Blackford continued: “It is the right of the Scottish people to choose [their own destiny], and woe betide anyone at Westminster who stands in the face of that expression of the SNP and the Scottish people.”
An apparently surprised Thomson responded: “Ian has just let the cat out the bag: if there is an election, it’s going to be about independence.
“People in Scotland now know that if they vote for the SNP that is what they are going to get.”
“Absolutely,” said Blackford, “and we have a mandate.”
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