Ian Blackford, the Scottish National party’s former Westminster leader, has accused the Scottish Tories of trying to revive an anti-independence coalition that became notorious among yes voters during the 2014 referendum.
Blackford said calls from Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, for Tories to vote tactically against the SNP by backing Labour at the next election were proof that the unionist alliance that won the referendum was “still alive and well”.
Over the weekend, Ross urged Tory voters to back Labour candidates if they had the best chance of unseating an SNP MP, before appearing to retract that suggestion after a UK party spokesperson said it was not the view of the Conservative party.
Blackford said Ross’s remarks were evidence that the Better Together campaign, which was set up by Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats to fight against independence in the 2014 referendum, continued to influence unionist thinking.
“I think what really Douglas has done is he’s demonstrated that Better Together is still alive and well, and it’s a real fight for Scotland’s future,” Blackford told BBC Radio Scotland on Monday.
“We want to make sure that we remove the risk of Conservative governments for ever. And the only way of doing that is by making sure that people do back the SNP in the next election, that we’ve got that roadmap for independence, and we remove the risk of that coalition of Tory and Labour seeking to hold Scotland back.”
Speaking on Good Morning Scotland, Blackford urged the SNP to “come together” behind its new leader, Humza Yousaf, who took power in March after a tumultuous and divisive leadership election campaign.
“Let’s make sure that we rise to the challenges that we have and that we’re ready to face electoral contests – the first electoral contest is the Westminster election in the second half of next year. I’m optimistic, but we need to make sure we’re worthy of the support of the people of Scotland,” he said.
In a further development over the SNP’s crisis after the arrest of its former chief executive Peter Murrell, the Mail on Sunday reported that a motorhome owned by Murrell was seized by police at his mother’s home in Fife.
Its seizure has not been confirmed by Police Scotland but the paper said officers did so at about 9am on Wednesday, the time when police raided the SNP’s headquarters in Edinburgh and searched Murrell and Nicola Sturgeon’s home in Glasgow.
The Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, has rejected any discussion of tactical voting or pacts, echoing Keir Starmer’s repeated rejection of any post-election agreement between the UK Labour party and the SNP at Westminster.
In the aftermath of the referendum campaign, the Better Together label became toxic for Scottish Labour in many constituencies after being successfully used by the SNP to tie Labour to the Tories.
Sarwar said Ross’s appeal highlighted the Tories’ panic at Scottish Labour’s recent surge in the polls, which suggest it could win at least a dozen or more Westminster seats. Labour has one Commons seat in Scotland but at the last election came second behind the SNP in dozens of constituencies.
Speaking as he announced that his deputy, Jackie Baillie, and Ian Murray, Labour’s sole Scottish MP, were joint election campaign coordinators, Sarwar said: “Only Scottish Labour can take seats from the SNP, kick the Tories out, and deliver the Labour government that Scotland badly needs.”
