Danny Alexander’s appeal ‘smacks of desperation’
DANNY Alexander has been accused of making a desperate attempt to woo Tory voters in his constituency by sending them letters claiming the Lib Dems are best placed to defeat the SNP.
With the Lib Dem vote in freefall, Conservatives in Alexander’s Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey seat are being targeted by the UK government minister.
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Hide AdMany Tories supporters have received a Lib Dem letter asking them for help to “ensure that Danny can continue to stand up for the Highlands as the SNP once again threaten to rip Scotland out of the UK”.
In the 2010 general election Alexander secured 19,172 votes to win the seat comfortably from Labour, which polled 10,407 votes. The Tories came fourth with 6,278 votes behind the SNP with 8,803 votes.
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Recent opinion polls, however, have suggested that Alexander’s House of Commons seat is in serious danger from the rise in SNP support after the referendum.
The letter makes a plea to Tory voters, saying: “Many of my friends who have supported the Conservatives in the past are supporting Danny. By lending Danny your vote this May you can safeguard the progress we have made over the last few years … by supporting Danny you can ensure that the Nationalists cannot push for a second referendum – a question that they said had been settled for a generation just a few months ago.”
In a postscript, the letter adds: “Remember the Conservatives cannot win this seat. Only Danny can keep the Nationalists out.”
Edward Mountain, the Conservative candidate for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, said: “With the Lib Dems polling at 5 per cent in Scotland, we are the natural place for the unionist vote and therefore I find their letter smacks of desperation.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Liberal Democrats said: “As the election gets nearer, Danny is campaigning for votes from across the spectrum. Conservative voters will have seen the leaked report from their head office in recent weeks which downgraded seats in Scotland to become non-target. So there is no point voting Conservative in Scotland.”