SCOTLAND has become “far more bitter” since it was “gripped by the dead hand of nationalism”, Douglas Ross will claim in his keynote conference speech.

The Scottish Tory MP and MSP is due to speak to his first in-person conference as party leader on Saturday afternoon, while struggling with a sore throat that is expected to limit the length of his address.

He will use the opportunity to take aim at the SNP, claiming that Scotland has become more “inward-facing” since they first came to power in 2007.

Ross will say: “We have become divided against ourselves. Can anyone say the Scotland of 2022 is a better place than the Scotland of 2007?

“The nation I grew up in was confident and outward-looking. Yet the nation my children grow up in today is far more bitter and inward-facing.”

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Ross was born in 1983, suggesting he is referring to Scotland pre-devolution under a Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher and then John Major. Tony Blair’s Labour came to power in 1997, with the Scottish Parliament opening in 1999.

With polling suggesting that the Tories face an uphill struggle at the local elections in May, Ross will urge the party to “bring together the silent majority of working people”.

He will say: “Scotland is becoming a smaller country every day that the SNP remain in power.

“We are becoming worse off, both economically and intellectually, because we are stuck with a Government that won’t take any responsibility.

“Our party must bring together the silent majority of working people to end this stalemate.”

He will claim the Tories are building “a real alternative that will end the referendum obsession and allow us all to move on”.

Ross’s speech has already been met with criticism, with former first minister Alex Salmond suggesting the Tories would need to find “a real majority, not a silent one”.

The Alba leader said: “Mr Ross, the new quiet man of Scottish politics, uses the Richard Nixon term ‘silent majority’ to express his hopes of a breakthrough. It was last claimed by his predecessor Baroness Davidson after the referendum on the way to another electoral disaster in 2015.

“The Scottish Government which I led was endorsed by the electorate by delivering a real majority, not a silent one, in a proportional Parliament.

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“In contrast Douglas Ross has made himself look ridiculous by his hokey-cokey performance on whether his Prime Minister should remain in office. No doubt Douglas Ross will recover the power of speech. Coherent political thought will be more difficult for him to obtain.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar accused Ross of “shameless hypocrisy”, claiming he and his party had “spent years stoking” division.

“The Tories aren’t the alternative to the SNP – they are their biggest asset,” he said.

“Their Government is failing communities across Scotland and the UK, and putting the very future of the country at stake.

“The Tories aren’t good enough to lead the UK and they aren’t strong enough to stand up to the SNP.”