Ian Blackford, the former leader of the SNP at Westminster, said the Scottish Conservative leaders comments on tactical voting proved “Better Together is still alive and well”.
Douglas Ross said at the weekend Conservative voters could vote Labour at the next general election in seats where Sir Keir Starmer’s party had a better chance of winning against the SNP, before backtracking on the suggestion.
But Mr Blackford told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland: “I think what really Douglas has done is he’s demonstrated that Better Together is still alive and well and it’s a real fight for Scotland’s future.
READ MORE: 'Humza Yousaf knows the route to independence'
“We want to make sure that we remove the risk of Conservative governments forever, and the only way of doing that is by making sure that people do back the SNP in the next election, that we’ve got that roadmap for independence, and we remove the risk of that coalition of Tory and Labour seeking to hold Scotland back.”
Ian Blackford
Mr Blackford appealed for the party to “come together” now it has selected Humza Yousaf.
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He said: “I would appeal to everyone in the party to come together now the election contest for the leader and the first minister is over.”
The politician, who backed Mr Yousaf to replace Nicola Sturgeon as leader, added: “I actually think when I look over the course of the first few days of the leadership of Humza, he’s made a number of very positive announcements.”
READ MORE: Sillars says current SNP incapable of progressing work on independence
Mr Blackford said the party needed to “make sure that we rise to the challenges that we have” and that it was ready to face its first electoral contest of the general election next year.
He added: “I’m optimistic but we need to make sure that we show that we’re worthy of the support of the people of Scotland.”
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