Scottish Tory Leader Slapped Down By Party After Suggesting Voters Back Labour

The leader of the Scottish Tories has been slapped down by party bosses at Westminster after he suggested voters back Labour to beat the SNP.

Douglas Ross said people should “do what’s best for the country” when deciding who to vote for at the next election. 

But a spokesman for the Tories at Westminster insisted tactical voting was “emphatically not the view of the Conservative Party”.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Ross said voters in Scotland opposed to the SNP should back the party most likely to beat them in their area.

He said: “The public know how to tactically vote in Scotland.

“I will always encourage Scottish Conservative voters to vote Scottish Conservative, but I think generally the public can see and they want the parties to accept that where there is a strongest candidate to beat the SNP you get behind that candidate.

“If parties maybe look beyond their own narrow party agenda and do what’s best for the country and for me as Scottish Conservative leader what would be best is if we see this grip that the SNP have on Scotland at the moment is loosened.”

But a UK Tory spokesman said: “This is emphatically not the view of the Conservative Party.

“We want people to vote for Conservative candidates wherever they are standing as that’s the best way to keep Labour and the SNP out.”

Ross’s remarks come at a time of crisis for the SNP in the wake of Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation as first minister and party leader.

Her husband, former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, was arrested in the investigation into the spending of around £600,000 that was earmarked for an independence campaign.

In her first public comments since the arrest on Wednesday, Sturgeon said she would “fully cooperate” with the police if they ask to interview her.

“I haven’t, but I will fully cooperate with the police as and when they request that, if indeed they do,” she told reporters outside her Glasgow home, when taking questions after giving a brief statement.

SNP president Mike Russell told The Herald newspaper the party was in the “most challenging crisis we’ve ever faced” during his 50 years as a member.