Scottish council elections: Ruth Davidson appeals to Lib Dem voters to switch to Tories

THE Liberal Democrats have “ceased to function as a viable party in Scotland”, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said today.

• Scottish Tory leader attacks Lib Dems in wake of council elections

• Results: SNP 424 (+57); Lab 394 (+58); Cons 115 (-16); Lib Dem 71 (-80); Green 14 (+6); SSP 1; Others 201(-22)

• Scottish council election results in full

Her comments come in the wake of massive losses for the Liberal Democrats in last week’s Scottish council elections.

The number of Liberal Democrat councillors fell to just 71 - down by 95 from their total in 2007.

The number of Conservative councillors also fell - from 143 in 2007 to 115.

However, the Scottish Conservatives overtook the Lib Dems to become the third party of local government and Ms Davidson said disillusioned Lib Dems should switch support to her party.

She said the Tories had a “positive vision”.

“Having last year been reduced to a rump of just five MSPs and having now lost more than half of their councillors, being firmly relegated to fourth position in Scottish politics, the Liberal Democrats have to all intents and purposes ceased to function as a viable party in Scotland.”

She claimed the council elections had seen the Liberal Democrats “falling back badly in what were once their electoral heartland”.

But in contrast she said the Tories had gained council seats in areas like Aberdeenshire, East Lothian and Argyll and Bute.

And she said that politics in Scotland was now “a three-way choice between an SNP whose sole purpose is tearing Scotland out of the United Kingdom, a Labour Party which is stuck firmly in the past and which is offering yesterday’s solutions to today’s problems, and the Scottish Conservatives who have a positive vision of a confident Scotland working in partnership with the other nations of the United Kingdom”.

The Tory leader added: “My message to moderate, non-socialist, Liberal Democrats is that there is a home for you with the Scottish Conservatives.

“By moving your support to the Scottish Conservatives we can together take forward our shared belief in freedom, local decision making, devolving more power from the Scottish Parliament to Scotland’s communities and defending Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom.”

A Scottish Liberal Democrat spokesman said: “We all had a good chuckle at this. We don’t really know if Ruth Davidson really believes this nonsense, but with only 30 more councillors and just a tenth of the MPs we have got in Scotland she would do better looking at the state of her own party.

“There is a need for strong liberal voices in Scottish politics and the Tories are certainly not that.”