Winning deputy FM's seat is not a pipe dream - Cole-Hamilton

Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton will address his party conference

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has said hopes of winning the deputy first minister's seat at next year's Holyrood election is not just a pipe dream for his party.

The party has said it would make Kate Forbes' Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch seat a key target. The deputy FM currently has a 16,000 majority.

Cole-Hamilton was speaking ahead of the Scottish Lib Dem annual conference in Inverness, which he said would have a focus on social care.

He said the SNP government had "neglected the Highlands".

The Scottish Lib Dem leader told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that his party overturned a "stupendous majority" in the Highlands at the last general election, and they hoped to build on that success next year.

He said: "Nobody saw us coming last year when Angus MacDonald won Charles Kennedy's seat - which covers a large part of Kate Forbes' seat.

"For the last 18 years the SNP have neglected the Highlands, whether that's in transportation and more commonly in rural healthcare.

"The Lib Dems are coming back in numbers, that's why we are here in the Highlands putting the SNP on notice."

The party leader also mentioned Maree Todd's Caithness, Sutherland and Ross seat and Fergus Ewing's seat in Inverness and Nairn as targets.

Veteran MSP Ewing announced that he would not stand for the SNP at the 2026 election.

Cole-Hamilton said he would not put a limit on the number of seats the party hopes to take in next year's Scottish Parliament election, but did say "we're going to do significantly more" than the four MSPs the party currently has.

"We have our tails up in this conference, we've just come off the back of the best election for liberals in 100 years, 72 MPs now delivering liberal priorities in the House of Commons.

"We aim to replicate that in the Scottish Parliament."

'Radical policy development'

Cole-Hamilton said the "absolute focus" of the spring conference would be social care.

He continued: "We're going to be doing some radical policy development around social care which is the key to unlocking so much of not just the rural health crisis in the Highlands but the health crisis throughout the whole of Scotland.

"This is going to be the absolute focus of our conference and indeed a large part our manifesto going into next year's election."

The party leader was also quizzed on the future of former Conservative MSP Jamie Greene, who announced on Thursday he was quitting the party, saying he has "a lot of time and huge respect" for him.

He did not confirm when asked if Greene would be a "surprise guest" at this weekend's conference.

UK Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey will also address the conference.