RUTH Davidson has been branded “shameless” after endorsing a Tory candidate because he voted for Brexit, despite her advocating Remain three years ago.
The SNP said the Scottish Tory leader was “completely out of touch” with Scottish voters after she praised the candidate in the Peterborough by-election for voting Leave.
Ms Davidson made the comments in an online fundraising appeal for Paul Bristow, who faces a strong challenge from the Brexit party in the Cambridgeshire seat next week.
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She said voters should “elect a new Conservative MP for the constituency who voted for Brexit and who can be trusted to deliver on the result of the 2016 EU referendum”.
Ms Davidson was one of the leading campaigners against Brexit in the EU referendum, famously denouncing Brexiter Boris Johnson in a live TV debate.
She also warned people at the time “you’re being sold it [Brexit] on a lie” and said Brexit would damage public services and the economy.
In 2017, she said: “Were there to be another referendum I’d vote to remain again”.
The SNP said it was a “shameless flip-flop”.
In a BBC interview in September 2017 @RuthDavidsonMSP said she would campaign to remain in the EU if there was another referendum. Today she is commending the Tory candidate in the #Peterborough by election to voters because he “voted for #Brexit.” pic.twitter.com/nQHx07u0c3
— Michael Russell (@Feorlean) May 29, 2019
Depute Leader Keith Brown said: “Ruth Davidson’s position on Brexit, the key question facing the country, is shameless - and leaves her completely out of touch with the Scottish public.
“From attacking the ‘lies’ of the Leave campaign and saying she’d vote Remain in a second referendum, Ruth Davidson has now completed her conversion to a full-brown Brexiteer.
“You would think that leading her party to one of the worst election results in their history would be cause for self-reflection.
“Instead, Ruth Davidson is doubling down and backing a disaster Scotland has firmly rejected twice.
“There seems to be no issue over which Ruth Davidson will not abandon her principles to serve the Tory interest - you can’t trust a word she says.”
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The by-election has been prompted by the recall of the former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya after she was found guilty of lying to avoid a speeding ticket.
Both Labour and the Tories fear local businessman Mike Greene could be elected as the first MP for Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party.
A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: “Ruth is backing a Conservative candidate who wants to deliver Brexit because she is a Conservative who wants to deliver Brexit.”
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