In parallel developments, the SNP barred a Muslim leader in Edinburgh, Amjed Hussain, from further party events for allegedly posting offensive anti-Jewish material on Facebook.
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The SNP’s Annabelle Ewing won that seat with a majority of 3,041. The Tories have put blocking another referendum at the forefront of their campaign, while Labour also says Scots have “moved on”. She highlighted that all this SNP success, along with Labour turmoil, are a relatively new phenomena.
Mr. Corbyn has since fumbled to counter the perception that his party is tolerant of anti-Semites.
“There was a poll out saying that when something is announced as a policy, people may support it”.
Launched a week after Nicola Sturgeon outlined her party’s re-election pledges, Kezia Dugdale’s party said the goal of 50% clean energy use underlined Scottish Labour’s “ambition to green our energy use”.
“I’m hoping to do a Leicester City here, zoom in from behind and win on May 5”, he told local radio on Tuesday, referring to the football team’s unlikely title victory in the English football Premier League this week. No one is waiting in the wings, where is the succession planning?
Fiona O’Donnell said, “This election is different from previous Scottish Parliament elections”.
For the Conservatives, who in 2015 had their worst Scottish result since records began, any progress is positive.
Conservative leader Ruth Davidson was stepping up her campaign today as she touched down in the North-east.
However James Mitchell, public policy professor at the University of Edinburgh, told IBTimesUK that he does not think the Tories will overtake Labour.
Oliver Mundell is probably best known as the son of current Scottish Secretary and Scotland’s only Tory MP David Mundell.
The big question is which group will come second. This makes them the only wholly reliable bulwark for that position, now and into the future. Some polls have predicted that it could potentially lead to the Conservatives overtaking Labour as the second largest party in the parliament. The SNP’s telegenic leader, Nicola Sturgeon, smiles down from billboards across the country. She faces the accusation of what is the point in getting powers if you do not use them?
IPPR Scotland director Russell Gunson said this means the next Scottish Government will have to reshape how services are delivered in Scotland.
Defeated Labour candidate Lesley Hinds said once the equivalent Westminster seat had been lost at last year’s general election she knew it would be a hard task. “To be honest, what the SNP were putting forward last time around was absolute nonsense – they were totally confused about currency issues”.
Tax and spend? More like divide and conquer.
The Tory campaign had focused on providing a strong opposition to the SNP, and Ms Davidson added: “I fully recognise and understand there are many people that have given us their vote for the very first time, not because they’re true blue Conservatives but because there’s a job of work they want us to do”.
With only days to go before the Scottish vote, a leaders’ debate saw independence again emerge as the topic discussed most fiercely.
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Mr Docherty pointed to Labour’s tax policy, adding: “The hard reality the Labour Party faces is that when you stand on a platform that promises to raise taxes for everyone earning over £20,000 – an unambiguously socialist platform that calls for the scrapping of Trident amongst other things, and with the United Kingdom leader we have, there is a correlation clearly with the fact that our support is going down perhaps even falling below one in five tonight and the Conservative vote at the same time going up”.
