David McLetchie confident of victory over SNP

Published on Saturday 6 February 2010 19:34

A TORY victory over the SNP at this year's general election is "within our grasp", the former leader of the party in Scotland will declare this week.

Setting out an ambitious target, David McLetchie claims his party – currently with just one seat – could cause a remarkable upset by getting more seats than the Nationalists, who have seven MPs at present.

Tactical voting may help the Tories in Scotland for the first time in decades, McLetchie claims, with voters now aware that they have a genuine chance of beating Labour to No 10. Consequently, he believes they will suck up the "anti-Labour" vote, leaving the SNP and the Liberals to fight for third place.

He will set out his ambitions in the Scotland on Sunday Lecture at this week's Scottish Conservative conference, which will also be attended by party leader David Cameron.

First Minister Alex Salmond has himself set the SNP a target of winning 20 seats. The second party behind Labour are the Lib Dems, who have 12 seats. If the Tories were to beat the SNP, the achievement would be a sensational turn-around for a party which was famously wiped off the map in Scotland in 1997, when all of its MPs were defeated north of the Border.

It has returned just two MPs from Scotland since, Peter Duncan and David Mundell, the current shadow Scottish Secretary.

&#149 The Scotland on Sunday Lectures, held at the four main Scottish political party conferences, are arranged in association with international public affairs firm Fleishman-Hillard. www.fleishman.com