WILLIE Rennie has complained Douglas Ross has not “bothered to pick up the phone” about his plan for a Unionist coalition to deny the SNP a Holyrood majority.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader said it showed his Tory counterpart was “not serious” about cross-party cooperation and was only out to get votes for himself.

Mr Rennie said the Tories were not trying to persuade Yes voters to return to the Unionist fold, merely “appealing to their core vote”.

The North East Fife MSP makes the comments in a Herald podcast with former BBC Scotland political editor Brian Taylor.

In March, Mr Ross wrote to Mr Rennie and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar asking them to sign up to a “Unionist manifesto” to fight a second independence referendum “regardless of the result in May’s election”.

The idea was given short shrift by the other parties, and Mr Ross has complained ever since that his genuine offer was rejected.

However Mr Rennie said Mr Ross’s lack of follow-through showed it was always a stunt.

He said: “I mean, Douglas is not serious. You know, he’s never once picked up the phone to me.”

Asked if he would like Mr Ross to give him a call, Mr Rennie joked that he wouldn’t, then added: “You never know, I’m a polite guy. But actually, for all his public claims about insisting that we work in partnership, not once has he bothered to pick up the phone.

“I’ve got Ruth [Davidson]’s phone number so he could easily get it [my number]. But he’s not even tried, and that tells you something about how serious he is. He’s trying to take votes from us and Labour.”

Asked why the Tories shouldn’t try to maximise their vote like every other party, Mr Rennie said: “When the SNP are up at 50 per cent in the opinion polls, you’d think you might try and persuade the bigger chunk of vote to come to you, rather than going after other parties. “Because in order to keep the United Kingdom together, we’re going to have to persuade some of these people to come back.

“You’re not going to persuade them to come back with a Tory-led campaign, which is only appealing to their core vote, is not interested at all in reaching out on a whole range of other issues to try and win people back.

“We are. I think Labour are. But I don’t think the Tories are. Now, that’s not how you keep the United Kingdom together, you have to reach out, not just have a consolidation strategy.”

Mr Rennie was also grilled on his “recovery first” election slogan, saying he would prioritise jobs, mental health, the NHS, schools, the climate crisis, policing, transport, higher education and housebuilding over independence.

He said: “We’re prioritising them over independence, because independence would be all-consuming. These issues are the top priority to deal with the recovery.”

Mr Taylor challenged him: “It strikes me you’re not really prioritising anything. It doesn’t amount to a strategy at all.”

‘The Brian Taylor Podcast’ can be found on Spotify and Apple Music from 9am today.