NICOLA Sturgeon has suggested voting SNP will pass on powers to local communities as she launched the party’s council elections bus.
The First Minister has told voters the May poll is a chance to “cast a verdict” on Boris Johnson and his government after damning revelations about him and the Chancellor breaking lockdown rules emerged.
But she said voting SNP at the local government elections could be a chance to devolve power beyond councils and into communities at the event in Dundee on Friday.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon to launch SNP campaign bus tour of Scotland
Sturgeon said: “As well as devolving powers to local councils, and I think councils would agree with this as well, there is a job to be done to devolve power even further down to local communities.
“I think some of the most exciting things I’ve seen in my own constituency over the last few years, thanks to the SNP administration in Glasgow, is the devolutions of budgets and decision making to some very localised communities and that has led to some real examples of regeneration in some of the areas I represent.”
Responding to allegations the SNP was prone to “centralise” power, she hit back at her opponents claiming they had been critical of Scottish Government schemes to devolve power to councils.
She added: “Why I think it’s not fair and indeed hypocritical of opposition parties is if you take some of the powers we have devolved to councils, we’ve seen a wall of opposition from other parties.”
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And she hit out at Douglas Ross over his justification of the UK Government’s deal with Rwanda, which she described as “disgusting and despicable” as well as questioning whether it would work in practice.
She said: “Douglas Ross earlier this year for what seems like five minutes tried to pretend that he had an independence of thought from Boris Johnson and the UK Government, but any illusions about that I think had been completely shattered by him.
“If he can’t even find it within himself to stand up and speak out against a policy as disgusting as this then I’m not sure what he will be able to stand up to Boris Johnson or the UK Government on.”
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