Douglas Ross MP's strong performance last night has been welcomed by members and voters looking for a clear alternative to Nicola Sturgeon's Neverendum obsession.
On oil and gas, a key sector in the North East, Douglas was the only Party leader to emphasise the importance of the jobs it creates and the other services it supports. The Scottish Greens were contemptuous with their central belt based Co-Leader muttering it contributes "nothing" to the Scottish economy.
An evasive Sturgeon ducked all the difficult questions, refusing to explain for example why her party has refused to take on responsibility for most of the welfare system despite having had the opportunity to do so for years. Fourteen years of SNP failure were quite simply ignored by an out-of-touch First Minister whose promises about education, operation waiting times and child poverty have all been comprehensively broken.
Last night, Douglas challenged Nicola Sturgeon on why an independence referendum is her priority as we recover from an international pandemic. It was clear to the live audience and everyone watching at home that the SNP’s only priority is another independence referendum, which would damage our economic recovery and divide Scotland all over again.
Unbelievably, Anas Sarwar spent more time attacking Douglas than Sturgeon, showing once again that Labour will not work together with us to oppose another referendum - and cannot be trusted to stand up to the SNP.
Douglas demonstrated that giving your party vote to the Scottish Conservatives is the only way to stop an SNP majority, stop indyref2, and get the country 100% focussed on our recovery from COVID-19.
