Tom Gordon
Scottish Political Editor
THE SNP and Tories are to appeal directly to disaffected Liberal Democrat supporters in the general election, adding to the strain on Nick Clegg's party as it tries to avoid a wipeout.
Party leaders Nicola Sturgeon and Ruth Davidson yesterday began the process with pitches aimed squarely at LibDems looking for a new home.
"The SNP is here for you," Sturgeon said.
With a series of opinion polls predicting a collapse in LibDem support, over 300,000 votes could be up for grabs in Scotland alone.
Campaigning in East Dunbartonshire, the seat with the smallest LibDem majority in Scotland, the First Minister accused the party of propping up a Tory government which had forced through austerity, penalised the poor, and pushed ahead with NHS privatisation and break-up in England.
She also attacked the LibDems for breaking their promise not to raise university tuition fees, and of abandoning House of Lords reform.
"As the polls show the LibDems heading for obscurity, my message to disillusioned former LibDem voters is this: the SNP is here for you.
"After five years in government propping up the toxic Tories, all Nick Clegg and his party have to show is a trail of broken promises.
"Unlike the Lib Dems, we have made clear we would never prop up a Tory Government.
"The SNP are making the compelling case for an alternative to austerity.
"Keeping Scotland's NHS in public hands is at the heart of our values.
"We want to get rid of the UK's useless, massively expensive nuclear weapons.
"A vote for the SNP is for a party that has the key goal of representing the people of Scotland. "The more SNP seats, the more we will be able to ensure that at long last the people of Scotland have power and influence at Westminster."
At the 2010 general election, the LibDems polled 18.9% of the Scottish vote with 465,474 votes.
However the latest poll of polls puts the party on just 4% in Scotland, roughly 100,000 votes.
A collapse on that scale on May 7 would cost the party all but one or two of its 11 Scottish MPs, with even Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander likely to be among the casualties.
The SNP successfully appealed to LibDem voters to switch in the 2011 Holyrood election by reminding them of Clegg's tuition fee U-turn.
The party lost 11 of its 16 MSPs on polling day.
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson also said her party had what LibDem voters were looking for.
She said: "Like them, we want to see tax cuts starting with the lowest paid, which is why we want to increase the personal allowance further.
"Like them, we want to see a more powerful Scottish Parliament while protecting the UK.
"Like them, we want to ensure that a strong economy is used to help pull up all of society.
"And like them, we want to take power out of the central belt and return it to local communities.
"To people who may have voted LibDem in the past, I hope they'll now look to see who can best take forward that agenda of a more open, more prosperous Britain."
A Scottish LibDem spokeswoman said: "With taxes down, pensions up, more childcare and the economy in recovery Scotland has seen the benefit of Liberal Democrats.
"The SNP have taken their eye off the ball on day to day services to focus on independence.
"The Tories want to cut services to the bone. "In so many seats across Scotland people are backing the local LibDems to stop the SNP."
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