THE leader of a party that wants to scrap Holyrood has claimed it has an "excellent chance" of securing MSPs in the upcoming election.
John Mortimer of the Abolish the Scottish Parliament Party argues devolution is an "expensive, divisive and failed Blair-era experiment".
His party is standing in all eight of Scotland's regional lists.
READ MORE: Alba party: Angus MacNeil says he wasn't considering switch to Salmond's side
Mr Mortimer, 31, said Holyrood costs "in excess of £100 million to run every single year", which is "inexcusable in the current economic climate".
He wants to win list seats off the Greens, help remove the SNP from power and "provide a much-needed anti-devolution voice in Scottish politics".
The party's website states: "The 'wee pretendy parliament' has become a gravy train for third-rate politicians who are little more than glorified councillors."
It adds: "We say it is time to Abolish Holyrood, save £100,000,000 annually, spend that money on the NHS and education instead and transform Holyrood's grounds into homes for veterans."
Mr Mortimer told The Herald: "There's very good reason to believe that we could reach the threshold to elect MSPs.
"The threshold to elect an MSP on the regional list, if you've not already elected a constituency MSP within that region, is between 5 and 6%, varying a little bit from region to region."
He cited a Panelbase poll in 2019 which indicated 22% of Scots backed staying in the UK but getting rid of Holyrood.
He added: "I think it's become clear to a lot of people now that Holyrood for the SNP is nothing more than a stepping stone towards the break up of Britain.
"They know that every power devolved chips away at the fabric of the union."
Mr Mortimer, who is standing in Central Scotland and lives in Glasgow, said he did not believe Holyrood has achieved anything that could not have been done by Scottish MPs.
He added: "All Holyrood has brought Scotland is constitutional obsession and serving as the SNP's platform to push for breaking up Britain."
He said MSPs elected on a platform to abolish Holyrood would not be an "abnormal situation".
READ MORE: Labour announces plan to 'clean up Holyrood' and restore trust in parliament
He pointed to Wales, where the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party gained two members of the Welsh Parliament through defections from Ukip.
John Ferguson, a former Ukip candidate, is involved in the Scottish party.
Mr Mortimer thinks the party could pick up support from across the political spectrum.
He said: "What we're doing is we're seeking a democratic mandate through this election for the anti-devolution position."
A number of smaller fringe parties are standing for election on May 6.
Scots overwhelmingly backed the creation of a Scottish Parliament in 1997.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel