Douglas Ross labels Scottish Labour an 'irrelevance' and says party has hurt case for the union

The Scottish Conservative leader was speaking on a podcast with conservative think tank Bright Blue Scotland.

Douglas Ross has labelled Scottish Labour an 'irrelevance' as pressure mounts on Richard Leonard

The leader of the Scottish Conservatives has labelled Scottish Labour an “irrelevance” and has harmed the case for the union as he aims to widen the gap between the two unionist parties.

Speaking on a podcast – due to be released later today - to the conservative think-tank Bright Blue Scotland which is backed by former Scottish Tory leaders Ruth Davidson and Jackson Carlaw, recently installed leader Douglas Ross said he was focused on targeting dissatisfied Labour voters.

The comments come the day after significant pressure was placed on the Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard who faced increasingly loud calls to resign from his position to allow someone else to take the party into the 2021 Holyrood elections.

Mr Ross, who was speaking prior to Labour chief whip James Kelly’s resignation on Monday night, said Mr Leonard was “pretty much unknown” to voters and that those who previously backed Labour could find a home with the Scottish Tories.

Asked whether the appointment and performance of Richard Leonard had harmed the case for the union, he said “absolutely”.

He added Scottish Labour are “more and more becoming an irrelevance” and said his party would target traditional Labour voters.

Mr Ross said: “You need strong opposition in the form of Parliament we have in Scotland, yes we are the lead opposition but it is incredible to now look at the Labour Party in Scotland and a leader is pretty much unknown in Richard Leonard.

"Just five years ago at the 2015 general election they still had most of the seats in Scotland for Westminster and now five years on they have one and at Holyrood we overtook them as the main opposition party and they are now relegated to third place.

“They are more and more becoming an irrelevance in Scottish politics which is why I’m very keen that we reach out to traditional Labour supporters as I did in my Moray seat when I won it from the SNP in 2017 and held it in 2019, to people who naturally align themselves in the past with Scottish Labour who now see no future for the party in Scotland and are looking for an alternative because they don’t want Scotland to separate from the United Kingdom.

"We have to form a broad church to allow them to feel comfortable voting Scottish Conservative next year, maintaining our place in the United Kingdom but also offering an alternative to the SNP with a positive range of policies that can take Scotland forward.”

He added: "People on both sides will take different views on the future of Scotland but there is a group in the middle that have still not formed their opinion.

"For me, as leader of the Scottish Conservatives and we are the strongest pro-union party in Scotland and the only party that can stop the SNP, we showed that in the 2016 Scottish election, we’ve got to look at this group in the middle who want both the head and heart argument and I think we can give them both.”

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