NICOLA Sturgeon asked voters to ensure Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage don’t get into power to allow the UK to solve climate change and social issues.
Speaking at last night’s ITV leaders’ debate, she called the Tory and Brexit Party leaders “the roadblock” to fixing the main problems faced in the coming years.
Sturgeon said the Tory manifesto would “take levels of child poverty in the UK to record levels” and highlighted the Conservative Government’s poor track record on social issues.
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She said: “Already four million children are living in poverty, it’s rising, and your policies will take more children into poverty. How can the Tories defend that?”
The debate was attended by all the main UK party leaders with the exception of Tory and Labour leaders. Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn were replaced by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak and shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon, respectively.
On the topic of Brexit, Farage was left red-faced when Labour’s Richard Burgon called him out
for a cheap dig at Sturgeon. Farage tried to defend Brexit, saying: “It’s going to give us independence. I thought you liked independence.”
Burgon responded to Farage, saying: “There’s nothing independent about taking instructions on LBC when Donald Trump phones up.”
Farage also attempted to deny claims that he planned to sell out the NHS. After being reminded of a real recording of him saying the UK should consider an insurance model for healthcare, Farage said: “I never said anything of the kind. Lie lie lie lie lie.”
Sturgeon, meanwhile, called for the other party leaders to work together more on healthcare and reminded them of Scotland’s commitment to the NHS. She said: “In Scotland, we spend £160 per head more on the NHS than in the rest of the UK.
“I stand here as the leader of a government that’s already introduced free personal care in Scotland – these other parties need to stop just talking about it and get on with doing things.”
Another topic up for debate was nuclear weapons. LibDem leader Jo Swinson stood firmly in favour of keeping the “deterrent”, and Labour took a similar stance, though Burgon did say that politicians shouldn’t boast about pushing the button.
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