ANAS Sarwar has accused Alex Salmond of making a comeback by “pretending” he is campaigning for a second independence referendum and is instead focused on plotting “revenge” against Nicola Sturgeon’s government.
The Scottish Labour leader also warned that while the First Minister is due credit for fronting up the SNP Government’s response to the Covid-19 crisis, she has been exposed as having a “blind spot” for independence that he insisted could put Scotland’s recovery from the pandemic at risk.
Mr Sarwar was pressed over Mr Salmond announcing his new Alba Party will contest May’s Holyrood election on the list ballot in an attempt the former first minister said could create a “super-majority” in favour of independence.
The Labour leader was asked whether he was concerned Mr Salmond’s new project was an attempt to game the Holyrood electoral system instead of delivering a parliament that reflects public opinion.
Mr Sarwar said: “I think it’s worse than that.
“I think he is pretending that this is about a referendum and is pretending this is about trying to create an advantage and game the system.
“What he is interested in is revenge not recovery."
The Labour leader warned that the dramatic return of Mr Salmond to the Scottish political scene cannot become a distraction throughout the election campaign and into the next parliament which will be tasked with helped Scotland recover from the Covid crisis.
He said: “I think this election campaign, the circus we’ve seen in the last few days, we cannot allow that to be the circus of the next six weeks and we can’t allow that to be the circus of the next five years of our parliament.
READ MORE: Two further SNP figures defect to Alex Salmond's Alba Party
“Scotland deserves so much better than that. We cannot allow SNP in-fighting and egos, settling scores or going back to the old arguments to distract us from what is the biggest challenge of our lifetime.
“If we want to put the national interest first, if we want to put people and their families and our national recovery first, you’ve got to have a parliament that demonstrates that. That is my relentless focus in this campaign.”
During Tuesday’s election debate, Ms Sturgeon said she intended to hold a second referendum in the first half of the next parliamentary term, assuming the Covid crisis has been dealt with.
But Mr Sarwar has warned that “the crisis isn’t over the day the lockdown ends", stressing that it “has a much more longer-term impact”.
He added: “I don’t think we can under-estimate the scale of the challenge that faces us.
“You speak to any business-owner across the country and they will tell you that the economy will not re-start the day lockdown ends or Covid goes away.
“It’s going to take time to get back to those pre-Covid levels if they can ever get back to those pre-Covid levels.”
He issued a warning to the First Minister not to be distracted by the independence question as Scotland draw up recovery plans.
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Mr Sarwar said: “I think the challenge that Nicola Sturgeon has is whilst I give her credit for being out there most days, trying to lead from the front on the response to Covid, I genuinely think she has a blind spot when it comes to the constitution, when it comes to independence and a referendum.
“I think if we are going to make sure we have a parliament that is focused on recovery, we can't have too much power with the SNP because they will be distracted by that blind spot and that will distract from our recovery and that will undermine all the things we want to do together as a country.”
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