SCOTTISH LibDems leader Willie Rennie has claimed his party could prevent the SNP winning a majority at the Holyrood election and block a second independence referendum.
Despite being the smallest party represented at the Scottish Parliament with only five MSPs, Rennie said the Scottish Lib Dems could win a seat in every part of Scotland in the May vote.
He told the party’s spring conference yesterday that only they could make a difference as the Tories were set to lose seats and Labour were “unlikely to make the necessary progress on their own”.
“The Liberal Democrats can make the difference at the next election,” said Rennie. “We can make gains in every region. We can win new seats.
“The Conservatives can’t. They have replaced Ruth Davidson, who was popular, with Boris Johnson’s choice of leader – who is not. Their tide is running away. They are set to lose seats. Every poll says so.
“The Liberal Democrats, with our plan to put recovery first, are ready to win more seats.”
LibDems MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton told the conference the election would be a “battle for the soul of the country”.
He is a member of the committee probing the Scottish Government’s handling of harassment allegations made against former First Minister Alex Salmond.
“The titanic struggle between the seismic forces of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon is beginning to tear at the stitching, the very fabric of Scottish democracy,” he said.
“The conflict in the SNP has unfairly undermined confidence in our public institutions, it has revealed a power imbalance between the legislature and the executive, evidence in the arrogance of ministers that would defy our nation’s Parliament not once, but on two occasions.”
The conference also called for more staff and increased investment for “overwhelmed” mental health services, with pressure mounting as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The LibDems said 15% of any increase in health spending should go towards mental health care.
A motion, passed unanimously, stated that an “urgent task for recovery from the pandemic” was to boost the mental health workforce.
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