More senior SNP politicians have been warned they could lose their seats to the Scottish Liberal Democrats in the upcoming Holyrood election.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the Liberal Democrat leader in the Scottish Parliament, said voters were “absolutely furious” with the SNP.
He named a number of prominent SNP figures – including two members of John Swinney’s ministerial team – whose seats are “winnable” in May.
Mr Cole-Hamilton had already set his sights on Kate Forbes’s seat of Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch after the Deputy First Minister announced she would not seek re-election.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats currently have five seats in Holyrood, with multiple polls estimating the party could win between eight and 12 seats.
Asked if that was the target, he told The Herald: “I’m not going to put a limit on my ambition. I think we are back, we’re at the races. I think people recognise that we are coming back in big numbers in this parliament to come.”
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But Mr Cole-Hamilton said there are at least 10 constituencies where seats could be taken from the SNP, from the Highlands, Argyll and Bute, Strathkelvin and Bearsden, and in Edinburgh Northern, as well as picking up seats from the regional list vote.
He cited drugs and alcohol minister Maree Todd, the MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, and public and women’s health minister Jenni Minto as vulnerable of losing their seats.
The Lib Dems are also targeting Strathkelvin and Bearsden, the seat currently held by Rona Mackay, who will not seek re-election, and Highlands and Islands MSP Emma Roddick, who is standing in the Inverness and Nairn constituency against her former SNP colleague Fergus Ewing.
Speaking to The Herald’s Unspun Live podcast ahead of the Lib Dem conference this weekend, Mr Cole-Hamilton said there was widespread “apathy” among voters towards the SNP.
He said: “The SNP promised to dual the A9 when it came to power. NASA put a man on the moon faster than it has taken them to deliver on that and they’ve still said communities are going to have to wait until 2035 for that to happen.”
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The Lib Dems backed the Scottish Government’s budget earlier this month, securing more than £300 million to be spent on hospices, rates relief for hospitality firms and colleges.
But Mr Cole-Hamilton has been clear that would not lead to a post-election coalition with the SNP.
“If you’re looking at our agreement with the SNP on the budget this year and last year as some kind of weathervane to us doing a government deal with the SNP in coalition, then you haven’t been paying attention.
“We are not going into government with the SNP. Of all the issues facing people in Scotland, the answers to none of them is a third decade of SNP administration.”
He added: “Look, there are no deals. There is no pacts with anyone. My focus right now is delivering a clear and coherent message, a compelling offer to the people of Scotland around the fact that Lib Dems get stuff done.”
But when pushed on a potential deal with Scottish Labour, Mr Cole-Hamilton refused to rule it out, pointing to Edinburgh City Council, where the Lib Dems sustain a Labour-run administration.
“That’s a thought for another day,” he said.
“Right now, we’re about laying out our stall to the people of Scotland in this exciting, potentially history making election.”
Pushed on whether he would join Mr Sarwar’s cabinet, he said: “I don’t leap out of bed every morning saying ‘how do I get into government’, or ‘how do I become deputy first minister.
“It’s not my motivating factor. I got into politics to do right by my community and to act on the instructions of the people that sent me here. That kind of thing is a conversation down the line. Right now my focus is absolutely about delivering on that positive mission of change with fairness at its heart.”
Last year, Mr Cole-Hamilton told the Daily Record he would not “hide” from a coalition with Labour.
He told the newspaper: “Of course I'd like the opportunity to walk the corridors of power, to make demonstrable changes, particularly for Scotland's looked after children, particularly for those young people facing domestic violence or child poverty.”
“So yes, I have the ambition to be deputy first minister of Scotland,” he added.
The SNP has been asked for comment.
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