ANAS Sarwar has claimed Boris Johnson’s Tories are “the biggest threat of the United Kingdom” as he pointed the finger at the Conservatives for “why our country is so divided”.

The Scottish Labour leader has appealed for voters at May’s Holyrood election to shun the SNP and Conservatives wrangling over independence and making “an artificial argument about the constitution”.

Mr Sarwar said the Tories and Nicola Sturgeon’s Government are “two sides of the same coin who want to take us back to the old argument” over breaking up the UK that existed before the pandemic.

He admitted that Labour “has not been on the pitch” and has let voters down by not offering a positive alternative.

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Mr Sarwar said: “I recognise that a time of national crisis, we haven’t been giving people hope and optimism and a direction of change – I want to change that.”

He rejected the idea that the Conservatives are the only credible pro-unionist party who can oppose the SNP's plans for independence.

He said: “We have seen what that strong opposition has resulted in – more division and more inequality in our society.

“The idea that Boris Johnson’s Tories are the strongest asset to keeping our United Kingdom together is simply not true.

“They are the reason why our country is so divided, they are the reason why we have heightening inequality in our society and in many ways, they are the biggest threat to the United Kingdom.”

Mr Sarwar claimed that both the SNP and the Tories “want to focus on division”, adding that they “don’t really care about uniting our people".

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He added: “I think both the Conservatives and the SNP want to view Scotland as if they are entrenched in two camps – that somehow they define themselves only on the Yes/No question.

“I think people are much more concerned about those key issues of keeping themselves safe, having access to a vaccine, their children’s education and mental health, around our NHS catch-up, around our climate emergency and getting people back to work.”

The Labour leader has made clear that he does not support independence or a second referendum being held – insisting that the sole focus of May’s election should be on recovery from the pandemic.

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He said: “I think the big mistake that both the Tories and the SNP are at risk of making in this election campaign is thinking that we are doing politics as usual, that we can go back to the old arguments and can pretend that this is not a pandemic election.

“This is a pandemic election. Lives and livelihoods are still at risk and will still be at risk in the next eight weeks that follow and beyond.”

Mr Sarwar added: “They want our politicians to grow up and move on, they want our politicians to recognise that this is a pandemic election where we’ve lost thousands of our fellow citizens and hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens have lost their jobs or are at risk of losing their jobs.

“At that time of national crisis, what they don’t need is politicians going back to their own personal, political interests - they need us working together in the national interest.”