Gray: vote SNP and get the Tories

THE Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray yesterday branded his SNP rival as "David Cameron's doorman", as votes for the First Minister's party would help usher in a Tory government in the general election.

In an address to his party's spring conference in Glasgow, Gray told activists: "Everyone should recall what the SNP did the last time there was a hung parliament. They ushered Margaret Thatcher into Downing Street and brought about a disaster for Scotland.

"On Thursday, Alex Salmond called me Jim Murphy's placeman. He was probably up all night crafting that rapier-like riposte. But it is a bit rich coming from the man who would be David Cameron's doorman."

On health, Gray said Labour would halve the waiting time to see a cancer specialist from two months to one.

He looked back over Labour's changes in fortune since its defeat by the SNP in the 2007 Scottish elections.

Gray admitted things were "difficult and perplexing" now, with Labour trailing in every Scottish poll and tasting defeat again to the SNP at the Glasgow East by-election.

But the party had turned itself around, he said, and was "winning" in Scotland.