SCOTLAND’S become stuck in a UK “Tory political Ice Age”, Ian Blackford says.
The SNP’s Westminster leader has said the UK’s politics is frozen after midterm polls showed no change since the Conservatives won a 157-seat majority in England at the 2019 general election.
Despite adding 47 seats to their majority in England at that contest, Scottish Tory bosses shed seven seats voters turned away from them.
However, the latest polling suggests the UK may face two decades of Tory rule.
Blackford says that means Scotland is “increasingly vulnerable under Westminster control”, with threats including a post-Brexit “power grab” on the Scottish Parliament.
He said: “The UK is stuck in a Tory political ice age with all the signs suggesting the Tories will be in power at Westminster for at least another decade.
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“It’s clear that independence is the only way to keep Scotland safe from repeated and unwanted Tory governments and the long-term damage of austerity cuts, Brexit and power grabs.”
As many as 18 opinion polls have taken place since the May elections.
An average of their results puts the Tories on 43.6% – no change on the 2019 general election – and Labour on 32.1%.
That’s also the same as after the snap winter contest, despite that party’s switch from Jeremy Corbyn to new leader Keir Starmer, who was the subject of stinging criticism from some factions of Labour’s support after its recent loss to the Tories in the Hartlepool by-election.
Former Brexit Party voters backed the Conservative candidate to help give her a 16% swing from Labour, according to polling guru Professor John Curtice, but some of Labour’s own base is understood to have fallen away.
Meanwhile, there’s now an 11.5% lead for Johnson – despite a catalogue of cronyism scandals and the car-crash claims made against his handling of the coronavirus crisis by former top aide Dominic Cummings.
READ MORE: Devolved nations tell Boris Johnson that 'power grab' risks break up of UK
He told a Commons select committee the Prime Minister failed to take the virus seriously, restated his claim that Johnson said he’d “let the bodies pile high” before enacting another lockdown and summed up his leadership by saying: “It’s crackers that Boris Johnson was in there”.
Johnson and the UK Government say it would be “irresponsible” to hold a fresh independence referendum and Michael Gove has said Westminster must demonstrate how its institutions “work for the benefit of all”.
Today Blackford said: “There isn’t a chance of a fair recovery under the broken Westminster system.
“Tory cuts will entrench poverty and inequality, hinder economic growth, and slash household incomes, damaging Scotland’s interests and leaving millions of families worse off.
“Scotland is increasingly vulnerable under Westminster control – with Tory cuts wiping out the benefits of progressive SNP policies like the Scottish Child Payment. Scotland hasn’t voted Tory in over 65 years but we’ve had Tory governments imposed against our will for the vast majority of that time.
“The only way to keep Scotland safe is to become an independent country with the full powers needed to build a strong, fair and equal recovery.”
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