On Saturday, the SNP, Scottish Labour, the Scottish Conservatives and the Scottish Liberal Democrats held events across the country. John Swinney, Douglas Ross, Anas Sarwar and Alex Cole-Hamilton have 41 days to convince voters ahead of the July 4 polling day. The First Minister began his campaign in Glenrothes where he focused on the SNP’s anti-austerity message.
He said: “Scotland has got to use this election to make sure we end austerity and the only party committed to ending austerity is the Scottish National Party. “We need a strong number of SNP MPs at Westminster to make sure that’s the case. We’ve got to pressurise Westminster to end austerity.
We’ve got to use the strength of the voice in Scotland to make sure that’s brought to an end.” Earlier he defended his decision to challenge the sanction ordered against his colleague Michael Matheson, saying the process on a Holyrood committee was “damaged” by “prejudice” from one of its members. Holyrood’s Standards Committee backed a 27-day suspension for Matheson following the row over a near-£11,000 data roaming bill on his parliamentary iPad.
He said he did not support the cross-party committee’s sanction as one of its members, Conservative Annie Wells, had previously made critical comments about Matheson’s explanation for the bill, which Swinney believes therefore prejudiced the decision. The Conservatives have said voters will punish Swinney for his “shameful defence” of his former min.
