Douglas Ross: Tories reject Scottish leader's Labour vote call

The Conservative party has rejected a suggestion from its leader in Scotland that voters could tactically back Labour to oust the SNP.

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Douglas Ross said "where there is the strongest candidate to beat the SNP, you get behind that candidate."

It would be a case of parties doing "what's best for the country", he said.

"This is emphatically not the view of the Conservative Party," a Tory spokesperson said.

"We want people to vote for Conservative candidates wherever they are standing as that's the best way to keep Labour and the SNP out."

In most of the SNP's constituencies, that would actually mean voting Labour or Liberal Democrat.

In his interview, Mr Ross said: "The public know how to tactically vote in Scotland...

"I will always encourage Scottish Conservative voters to vote Scottish Conservatives.

"But I think generally the public can see, and they want the parties to accept, that where there is a strongest candidate to beat the SNP, you get behind that candidate.

"If parties maybe look a bit beyond their own narrow party agenda to what's best for the country - and for me as Scottish Conservative leader, what would be best is if we see this grip that the SNP have on Scotland at the moment is loosened."

'Biggest challengers'

But later on Sunday, Mr Ross sought to clarify his position, insisting this did not mean encouraging Conservative voters to vote for other parties.

He told BBC Scotland: "I urge every Scottish Conservative voter to vote Scottish Conservative and I would always do that.

"But we also know that in many parts of the country, the Scottish Conservatives are the biggest challengers to the SNP so if supporters of other parties unite behind the Scottish Conservative candidate, we have the best possible chance of defeating many SNP MPs.

"That will clearly send a message that the public want our politics in Scotland focused on their real priorities - not a divisive independence referendum."

He added: "It is up to other party leaders to suggest what they are doing in the seats they are targeting.

"If the supporters of other parties unite behind us we can defeat the SNP and get a result similar or better than what happened in 2017 when the SNP lost a significant number of MPs."

Labour's Jackie Baillie said voting for Labour would be all they would ask people to do

While local council elections are taking place across much of England and Northern Ireland in May, no seats are up for grabs in Scotland or Wales.

The next general election must take place on or before 28 January 2025, but it is widely expected that one will be held in the weeks or months before this date.

The SNP has dominated the last three general elections in Scotland.

Although Labour has only one Scottish MP, the party has hopes of returning more. But that does not mean tactical voting pacts.

Scottish Labour deputy Jackie Baillie told BBC Scotland: "There is no mistake in this. We are asking people to vote Labour.

"If they want to see the back of the Conservatives in the UK government because they have had enough of being let down by them and they want to see the back of the SNP in Holyrood, then the only vote that will do that is a Labour vote.

"That is all we are asking people to do. Nothing else."

'Little difference'

The SNP said a pact could not be ruled out after a number of deals were done with the Tories in councils across Scotland following last year's local elections.

The party's deputy leader Keith Brown said: "It shows just how little difference there is between the Tories and the pro-Brexit Labour party that Douglas Ross is willing to endorse them instead of his own party.

"Keir Starmer has taken Labour so far to the right that they are now just a pale imitation of the Tories - backing Brexit, supporting brutal austerity and attacking devolution."

It is not the first time Douglas Ross and Scottish Conservatives have broken with the main party line.

In January last year, the Scottish leader said the position of the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson was "no longer tenable" after Mr Johnson admitted attending a Downing Street party during lockdown.

Mr Ross later rowed back on this position following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Ross's remarks come at a time of crisis for the SNP in the wake of Nicola Sturgeon's resignation as first minister and party leader, and the arrest of her husband Peter Murrell.

Mr Murrell, the former SNP chief executive, has been questioned over the party's finances. He has since been released without charge pending further investigation.

In her first public comments since the arrest on Wednesday, Ms Sturgeon said she would "fully cooperate" with the police if they asked to interview her.

Asked if she had been questioned by officers, Ms Sturgeon replied: "I haven't, but I will fully cooperate with the police as and when they request that, if indeed they do."

She was talking to reporters outside her Glasgow home on Saturday, when taking questions after giving a brief statement.