DAVID Cameron will today (tue) tell Scots that only the Tories can save the economy as he campaigns north of the Border for the first time in the General Election.
The Prime Minister, who flew into Edinburgh last night, will say that the British people have one month to avert the "disaster of an Ed Miliband Government" which would lead to a mountain of debt, punitive taxes and the introduction of Labour's "anti-business and anti-aspiration agenda".
He is expected to say: "These past five years we have got Britain back on its feet. All four nations are growing; jobs are being created the country over; taxes are coming down; the deficit has been halved as a share of our economy; and more families can look forward to a brighter future. We are fixing the economy so that everyone feels the benefit. Of course more remains to be done, but real progress has been made. In just one month's time, that progress is at risk."
It comes after the Conservative leader claimed the Tories were the "party of low taxes" and said reforms would leave almost 23 million households better off, a claim strongly disputed by Labour who accused the Prime Minister of planning a secret tax cut for millionaires.
The visit, as part of a one-day tour that will also see Mr Cameron campaign in Northern Ireland, Wales and Cornwall, comes as a new YouGov poll shows SNP support holding firm in Scotland.
The updated What Scotland Thinks/ScotCen Poll of Polls predicts support of 45 per cent for the SNP, compared to 28 per cent for Labour, 15 per cent for the Tories and four per cent for the Liberal Democrats. If repeated on May 7, it would be likely to leave Labour with just 10 MPs, compared to 47 for the SNP. The Liberal Democrats would be left with just one Scottish MP, down from 11 in 2010, while the Tories would retain their one seat.
However, Jim Murphy, speaking as he officially launched Scottish Labour's campaign, said polls were "there to be confounded".
Mr Murphy, along with Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson and Willie Rennie for the Liberal Democrats, is hoping to turn the tide against SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon at the first Scottish leaders televised debate, which takes place tonight.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article