Scots are 'so thick' says Tory Holyrood hopeful

A TORY party Holyrood candidate has described Scots as "so thick" for hating Margaret Thatcher. Well-known businessman and prominent Tory backer Ivor Tiefenbrun said Scottish voters had "swallowed" the idea that the former prime minister was an "evil force".

• Mr Tiefenbrun at Linn Products in the late 1990s

The hi-fi entrepreneur and MBE, who has been selected as the Tory candidate for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, told The Scotsman that "you would have to be thick to accept that".

He claimed Baroness Thatcher had "saved our cities" in Scotland and had broken the "corrupt power" of the trade unions as well as "enabling people to buy their own homes" during her 11 years in power.

Mr Tiefenbrun, who played a leading role in the anti-devolution Think Twice campaign, hopes to win election to the Scottish Parliament in the newly created Glasgow seat.

But last night the tycoon was facing calls to make an "unreserved apology", with one MSP saying he was not "fit to be a candidate" for Holyrood because of his comments.

Mr Tiefenbrun defended the 1980s governments of Lady Thatcher, whose controversial policies included the unpopular poll tax and widescale closure of Scottish coal mines.

He said: "The way Labour work is that they have demonised Thatcher as if she was an evil force.

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"It's only because Scots are so thick that this was swallowed."

When asked to explain his comments by The Scotsman, Mr Tiefenbrun said "you would have to be thick to accept that" Lady Thatcher had been bad for Scotland.

He said: "Margaret Thatcher saved our cities. She broke the power of the corrupt trade unions.

"She enabled people to buy their own homes and we can contrast that with what the Labour governments did in harming the economy and increasing taxation and debt."

Mr Tiefenbrun said the Tories needed to persuade voters north of the Border to "stop being sheep" and said that the "politics of grievance" was the politics of Scotland.

He said: "Labour has debased life in Scotland in the name of class hatred and people think that the only way to solve a problem is to throw money at it.

"We have to look at the education system and ask if we have got too many teachers."

The Tory businessman was last night heavily criticised for his remarks, which included a claim that patients could "walk into hospitals and be dead in 48 hours from an infection."

Mr Tiefenbrun was criticised by Patricia Ferguson, MSP for Glasgow Maryhill, a constituency with a Labour majority of 2,310 that is being redrawn to create the new seat of Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn.

She said: "It looks like Mr Tiefenbrun is on a mission to make himself more unpopular than Thatcher herself.These comments show why Scots have repeatedly rejected the Tories.

"He should know he won't win many votes in Maryhill or Springburn by insulting the people he hopes to represent.

"Frankly, if this is the way he really thinks about the people here then he not fit to be a candidate and his party should know better than to select someone who is so out of touch."

The Green Party MSP for Glasgow Patrick Harvie accused Mr Tiefenbrun of making "numpty comments".

He said: "Scotland's decision to reject Thatcher a nd all her works should be seen as a sign of collective wisdom.

"It's no wonder Cameron's Conservatives still struggle here when their candidates make numpty comments like this.

"The Tories should deselect Mr Tiefenbrun forthwith and pick a candidate who can open his mouth without insulting his electorate."

Mr Tiefenbrun was still confident last night that he could take the Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn seat, and hit out at the SNP over its "sectarian" nationalism.

He said: "I campaigned against devolution and all the things I feared have come to pass and I've come to see the sectarian state of paralysis and stupid policies of Labour and the SNP. The conventional view is that this seat is unwinnable no matter how much nonsense people are prepared to talk to voters, but Labour has let people down."

Bob Doris an SNP Glasgow MSP, who is standing in the Maryhill and Springburn constituency at next year's election, demanded an apology from Mr Tiefenbrun. He said: "This is typical of the same old anti-Scottish Tories. They do not appear to have learned any lessons.

"The Tory candidate should give an unreserved apology.

"His party could of course replace him as their candidate, but I suspect that would be like changing the deck chairs on the Titanic."

Last night the Scottish Tories made a desperate attempt to defuse the story.

A terse statement issued by the party's Scottish spokesman said: "The candidate (Mr Tiefenbrun] denies using these words and does not hold these views."