Only the SNP can make Scotland Tory-Free
by In the last Westminster election the SNP won 48 seats and gained seven from the Tories.
The SNP gained more seats from the Tories than Labour managed in all of England.
And in Scotland Labour only managed to win one single, solitary seat in the whole of Scotland – they even came behind the Liberal Democrats who managed to win four.
The stark fact of the SNP winning 48 seats – and cutting the number of Tory MPs in Scotland by more than half – compared to Labour only returning a sole MP, should be evidence enough that the SNP is the only party strong enough to beat the Tories in Scotland.
However, there’s more reason that the SNP is the only party capable of getting the Tories out in Scotland.
Firstly, in every seat the Tories hold in Scotland the SNP is the clear challenger. In the last election the SNP was only behind the Tories by a few hundred votes or a swing of less than 5%.
In contrast, the closest Labour was to beating a Tory was a massive 14,658 votes behind – and they came third!
If only a fraction of those who had voted Labour had voted SNP a number of those Tory MPs would have lost.
But a second reason to vote SNP to make Scotland Tory-free is that most seats in Scotland are contests between the SNP and the Tories.
The fact is that it is the SNP that can eject the Tories in Scotland. Voting Labour risks seeing the Tories not only hold seats but also gain seats.
In fact, if everyone in Scotland had voted Labour last time the Tories would have still been the UK government with a majority of 58 seats.
To eject the Tories from government Labour has to win seats in England as it has done in the past. There have only been two elections where Scottish seats were needed but the most recent of those was half a century ago.
And let’s not forget the 2017 election. Because some former SNP votes went to Labour, the 12 seats the Tories took off the SNP gave the Tories an advantage at Westminster. They just had to rely on the DUP to get a parliamentary majority. Without those 12 seats a Tory/DUP alliance would have been 11 short of a majority.
And sadly, even if Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour do replace the Tories as the UK government, that’s no guarantee that Scotland will be rid of Westminster Tory governments forever.
As history shows the sole guaranteed result of ever UK Labour government has been the Tory government that replaces it. Only with independence can Scotland get rid of Westminster Tory governments for good.
Besides, with Sir Keir adopting Tory spending plans and accepting Tory policies, Scotland faces more Tory policies it rejects.
Therefore, the facts are clear. Only voting for the SNP and independence is the guaranteed way to make Scotland Tory-free.