UNIONIST voters have just “seven days left to save Scotland’s recovery” by stopping an SNP majority, Douglas Ross will claim today.
The Scottish Tory leader will urge pro-UK voters to use the list ballot to prevent the Nationalist parties “hijacking the Scottish Parliament” to demand independence.
Polls suggest the SNP on the cusp of an overall majority, and a clear majority for pro-independence MSPs once the Greens and Alex Salmond’s Alba Party are included.
Campaigning near the Scotland-England border, Mr Ross will say: “Just as in 2014, Scotland stands on the brink.
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“The SNP want to rip up our country and they want to do it at the worst possible moment.
“Polls show the SNP are on the cusp of a majority and, backed by the Greens and Alex Salmond, the threat of a nationalist supermajority is very real.
“They are intent on hijacking the Scottish Parliament for the sole purpose of delivering a second independence referendum.
“Instead of setting up programmes to protect and create jobs, they will be inventing an economic case for independence and trying to design a new currency.
“Instead of supporting our NHS to work through a backlog of cancelled treatments, they will be planning to dismantle our healthcare procurement system, responsible for the huge success of the vaccine scheme.
“Instead of catching pupils up from a year of disrupted learning, they will be arranging to scrap the Barnett Formula that funds our schools and other public services.
“Instead of Scotland’s two government’s working together for our recovery, they will force a constitutional showdown and court battles.
“Instead of working to rebuild Scotland from a pandemic, they will be working to break up the United Kingdom.
“Instead of an election result that lets the country move on, we will move straight from a Scottish Parliament Election campaign into a second referendum campaign.”
Nicola Sturgeon has said she wants Indyref2 by 2014, Covid permitting, and independence in 2026.
However she has yet to model the economic impact of independence, saying that would only be done closer to the vote.
Boris Johnson, who has already refused the First Minister’s 2019 request for Holyrood to have referendum powers, has said the No result of 2014 should stand until the 2050s.
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Mr Ross will add: “We have only seven days left to save Scotland’s recovery.
“If we do not address the threat next Thursday, the SNP will have a green light to charge ahead with a hard border, just a few hundred yards from where I stand. The very future of our country is at stake – and you need to vote for the future you want to see.
“They may be on track to win full control of our Parliament right now, but that outcome is not inevitable. Another referendum is not inevitable.
“The only way to stop a second independence referendum is to using your party list vote on the peach ballot paper for the Scottish Conservatives.
“Even if you have never supported our party before. Even if it’s just this once. Even if you never consider yourself a Conservative.
“In 2021, if pro-UK voters come together again and use their peach ballots for the Scottish Conservatives, we will stop a referendum and keep Scotland on the road to recovery.”
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