ALEX Cole-Hamilton has claimed Scotland is on the verge of a “liberal revival” – with the party expecting to woo disaffected Tory voters in tomorrow’s local elections.
The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader is expecting his party to make big gains across Scotland, including a potential surge in Edinburgh.
In a Herald interview, the Edinburgh Western MSP also criticised the Scottish Government for hoarding power away from local authorities.
At the 2017 local elections, the LibDems stayed relatively static, with 67 councillors elected – while last year’s Holyrood election saw the party reduced from five to just four MSPs.
But Mr Cole-Hamilton, fighting his first election as leader, is confident the Scottish LibDems are on the road to recovery – with tomorrow’s council elections the first battle to turn the tide.
All of the party’s initial target seats remain a realistic aim, with Conservative voters disaffected with Douglas Ross’s Scottish Tories over the Partygate scandal potentially giving the LibDems a boost at the ballot box.
Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “We are going to make big strides in the Highlands, big strides in Fife, big strides in Edinburgh in particular, where we are already, in terms of the number of candidates, the biggest challengers to the SNP in our nation’s capital.
“I fully expect to make a huge stride forward in the number of councillors elected in Edinburgh.
“We’re going to see a revival in the Borders potentially, and lots of pockets where charismatic new LibDem candidates are inspiring their communities again and reminding people what you get with the LibDems.”
The LibDem leader is also targeting “representation on Glasgow City Council for the first time in a while”.
Mr Cole-Hamilton thinks his party will “surprise people” with their performance this week.
“Without question, Partygate is hurting the Conservatives very badly. Either people are going to stay at home and not bother to vote or they are going to come to us. It’s very difficult to see them leaping to the SNP.”
He claimed that the LibDems are also “picking up quite a lot of disaffected SNP supporters” who are “scunnered with the drumbeat of independence” and “rethinking their support” for it.
He claimed that the SNP-Green Government is not devolving powers that local authorities need.
“This is the most centralising government I can remember.
“They want power devolved from Westminster but they also want to retain power for themselves and not give it to communities.
“Even more so, they want to extract power from local communities.”
The LibDem leader branded plans by the Scottish Government to set up a National Care Service to reform how adult social care is delivered “a ministerial takeover” – adding that “they don’t trust local communities”.
He said: “We passionately believe in the powers of local government, but they could be improved. We’re the only party in this local election offering a power surge to local authorities.”
Mr Cole-Hamilton has also called for councils to be given spending powers over business rates.
“We can point to towns all around the country that are de-populating, where businesses are moving out – these are becoming retail deserts.
“If local authorities had the control over business rates that they charge, they could incentive certain areas that have become those retail desserts to attract businesses back in.”
He argued that “we are due a liberal revival in Scotland”, adding that “that revival was always going to start in local government”.
He said the LibDems and Labour have been penalised at the ballot box in recent elections by the “constitutional washing machine” in Scotland, while “the SNP and Tories have done a good job of feeding off each other”.
He said: “They have squeezed not just us, but they’ve squeezed the Labour party too. But I think people are tiring of that. In polling, for example, only 11 per cent of Scots want an independence referendum on Nicola Sturgeon’s timetable.”
He added: “The Tories want to sell you a vision of Britain as it is, with no changes – a steady-state Britain.
“That isn’t working for everybody. That’s one of the reasons why people are attracted to independence.
“We do need to reform Britain. But the Tories are part of the problem.
“We have been held back for the best part of 10 years by clashing nationalisms – the nationalism of the SNP but also the Brexit nationalism of Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party.”
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