Scots Tories set to gain new seats

Published on Saturday 2 January 2010 18:55

NEARLY six out of ten Scottish voters in Conservative target seats expect David Cameron to become prime minister this year, according to polling data released by the party last night.

The poll also found that Cameron was backed over Gordon Brown as the better leader, by 54 per cent to 46 per cent.

The 11 Scottish seats polled – which the Tories are targeting in Scotland – include the constituencies currently held by Chancellor Alistair Darling and Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy.

The Conservatives claimed the polling showed they stood a "real chance" of winning across the country.

But Labour last night said the Conservatives had pointedly failed to publish details on how people would actually vote, saying Scots remained unwilling to vote Tory.

In the polling data released by the party, 53 per cent of voters agree that it would be good for Scotland if there were more Conservative MPs from Scotland elected at the next general election.

Meanwhile, 73 per cent said they agreed that the Labour government looked "tired and failing".

In an interview with Scotland on Sunday, shadow Scottish secretary David Mundell said if Scots voters wanted a change of government they could not rely on the English to do it.

The Scottish party is hoping to frame the coming election as a straight fight between it and Labour, arguing that as only the Tories stand a chance of toppling Labour, voters across the UK, including Scotland, should therefore vote Conservative to get Labour out.

However, polling in Scotland shows the Conservatives still on just over 20 per cent, as they fight alongside Labour, the SNP and the Lib Dems to grab the voters' attention.

Mundell said: "They (Scots voters] can't rely on others to deliver change. If people in Scotland want change they have to play their part by voting Conservative."

He also admitted that there were still many voters in Scotland who may lean towards the Conservatives but who nevertheless backed another party, often because of local circumstances. "But this general election isn't about whether your local MP does a good job. People have to face up to this. If they are going to bring change about, it is not a case of simply voting for the Lib Dem or SNP MP who they think does a good job as a local MP," he said.

"If people want change the only way they can guarantee it is by voting Conservative and ensuring that Conservative MPs are coming from Scotland ... we can't expect they will come from elsewhere. We won't have change by voting Lib Dem or SNP."

As for the party's image in Scotland, Mundell said – much like the SNP after it gained power – perceptions of the Conservatives would change the moment it got into office.

In a further effort to marginalise the SNP, the Conservatives also released a poll finding which asked people whether the Nationalists should focus on the Scottish parliament. Seven out of ten of those questioned said the SNP should concentrate on Holyrood.

SNP deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon hit back last night. "The Tories' own misplaced hype exposes their fatal weakness, because they fail to understand that Scottish issues include securing the full powers needed to fight recession, to oppose the savage cuts in Scotland's budget planned by both the Tories and Labour, and to scrap the obscene 100 billion Trident nuclear weapons programme that both the Tories and Labour want to dump on the Clyde."

She added: "The reality is that the general election in Scotland will be a two-horse race between the SNP and Labour."

A Labour spokesperson said: "The majority of Scots have not forgiven the Tories for what they did to our country and are sceptical of David Cameron's glib soundbites."

In Oxfordshire meanwhile, David Cameron used a speech to set out his priorities ahead of the general election, describing 2010 as a "Year for Change".

He said: "It's a brand new year. A new decade is fresh before us. This time always comes with a sense of hope. Hope that successes can be built upon, failures can be learned from, new ideas started, a new course charted."