THE Scottish Tories have warned an SNP majority and a second independence referendum would "wreck" the economic recovery as they highlighted an endorsement from a former Labour minister.
Tom Harris, the former MP for Glasgow South and a rail minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, said he cast his postal ballot for the Tories with “no joy in my heart”.
Mr Harris, who also voted Tory at the 2019 general election because of Jeremy Corbyn, said he had still voted Labour in his Glasgow Cathcart constituency.
As the fight for list votes among Unionist parties intensifies, the Scottish Tories again turned to former leader Ruth Davidson to spearhead their message.
She said only pro-UK voters giving their Holyrood list vote to the Tories would “stop an SNP majority hell-bent on independence wrecking Scotland’s recovery” with Indyref2.
The Tories said tomorrow was a choice between “referendum or recovery” and by extension, “SNP majority or peach vote Tory”, a reference to the colour of the list ballot
Ms Davidson, who is quitting her Edinburgh Central seat and moving to the House of Lords after the election, said: “It’s fantastic to hear that so many pro-UK voters, including the former Labour MP Tom Harris, will be lending their peach party list vote to the Scottish Conservatives to stop an SNP majority and stop another referendum.
“If we unite and bring back the Better Together spirit for one day only, we won’t have to go through the division and uncertainty of another referendum.
“We’ll stop the SNP again, just like we did by coming together in 2016.
“There is only one way to guarantee we stop the SNP wrecking Scotland’s recovery and get all of the focus back onto rebuilding Scotland – lend the Scottish Conservatives your peach ballot, even if it’s just this once.
“If the pro-UK vote sticks together, we can stop that majority.
“All the opinion polls say it can be done. But if the pro-UK vote splits, with votes going to smaller parties, then the SNP will win a majority.
“This election is on a knife-edge and the future of our country is on the line.”
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, who has failed to match MS Davidson’s popularity since taking over the party last August, added: “For 14 years, the SNP have failed Scotland by focusing only on their own selfish obsession at the expense of everything else.
“They’ve divided our country for more than a decade and on every street across Scotland, we can all see the damage they have done.
“Nicola Sturgeon should be ashamed of what happens when she takes ‘her eye off the ball’ – the worst drug deaths in Europe, schools slipping down league tables and 3,000 avoidable deaths in Scotland’s care homes.
“Now, when we need to stick together more than ever and use the firm foundations of the United Kingdom to rebuild Scotland, they want to break up the country and wreck our recovery.
“The UK furlough scheme is protecting jobs and the UK vaccine scheme is tackling the health crisis – but the SNP want to ditch all of that at the worst possible moment.”
It emerged today that Ms Davidson's former chief spindoctor, Eddie Barnes, is advising the new Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
SNP Depute Leader Keith Brown said it showed Labour were "actively keeping alive their toxic alliance with the Tories" and had "clearly they learned nothing from the Better Together campaign" of 2014.
Better Together led the winning side in 2014.
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