THE Scottish Liberal Democrats have launched their General Election campaign in North Queensferry with a focus on dentistry, which is a devolved matter.
Scottish party leader Alex Cole-Hamilton was joined by UK party leader Ed Davey, as the pair claimed the service has been neglected by the Scottish and UK governments.
Cole-Hamilton said working with the current SNP Government in Holyrood was “harder than pulling teeth”.
He said: “People are resorting to DIY dentistry and buying tools off Amazon to do the job themselves because they can’t get an NHS dentist.
“Some Ukrainians have even travelled back to Kyiv for dental care because the air-raid sirens, drone strikes and cruise missiles are less daunting than the waits in Scotland’s NHS.
“The SNP promised to scrap dental charges, but instead they have introduced new charges and doubled the price of some procedures.
“Dentists are being driven away from the NHS because working with this SNP government is harder than pulling teeth.”
Speaking at the launch, Davey said his party intends to take seats from the SNP at the General Election.
He said seats such as Mid Dunbartonshire and Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire would be target seats for the party.
Mid Dunbartonshire, which was previously East Dunbartonshire before it was amended under boundary changes, was won by the SNP with just 149 votes, with former Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson in second place.
Despite the optimism to overtake the SNP as the third largest party at Westminster, Davey would not be drawn on the exact number of seats he expected to win.
In 2019, the party won just four of the 59 Scottish seats but boundary changes will see just 57 seats up for grabs north of the border.
Davey: “We have got great MPs but I think we also have a great number of candidates who can beat the SNP in places like Dunbartonshire with Susan Murray, in places like Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire with Angus MacDonald.
“I believe we can make gains here in Scotland just as we’re going to make gains against the Conservatives in England.
“I think we can have more liberals in Parliament after this election.”
He added: “We’ve seen people in Scotland rejecting the SNP, we’re seeing that in our polls and in canvassing, and in places like Dunbartonshire and West Ross-shire, they’re turning to the Liberal Democrats, so I think we can gain seats here in Scotland.
“The SNP are going to lose a lot of seats in Scotland, we’re going to win seats here.”
