THE SNP have launched their General Election battle bus, with just six days left until the polls close on July 4.
On Friday, John Swinney was joined by Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes and Deidre Brock, SNP candidate for Edinburgh North and Leith, as well as SNP activists to officially launch the party’s battle bus.
The bright yellow coach bearing the slogan “a future made in Scotland”, and a decal of the First Minister, made its debut on Calton Hill in Edinburgh.
Swinney met with activists and spoke to a group of schoolchildren before speaking to the media, where he praised the generosity of SNP members and promised to be “out on the road with my bus for the remainder of the election campaign”.
The SNP leader said the bus showed the party is running a well-funded campaign.
He said: “I’ve been listening to journalists telling me that we don’t have enough money for the election campaign.
“And we’ve just put a big spanking bus on the road for the last week of the election campaign, along with a host of other interventions to give us the final push we need for polling day.”
He continued: “I’m profoundly grateful to all the members who have supported us.
“We’ve got a lot of members, a lot of them have given us money to help us in our campaign. Small sums of money, £10, £20.
“All these donations are important and I’m really grateful for to people for doing exactly that.”
He said the election is “over and done with in England” but the race in Scotland is “hotly contested”.
Swinney said: “The Labour Party are not confronting the fact there’s going to have to be massive spending cuts that they’ve signed up to, by the decisions they’ve taken to accept Tory fiscal policies. “And there’s damage that has been done because of Brexit.
“If people in Scotland want to address these real issues, they’ve got to have a strong group of SNP MPs who will protect their interests and speak up for them in the House of Commons.”
He added: “We’re giving it our all in this election campaign.
“I’m going out on the road with my bus for the remainder of the election campaign to fight a high-profile campaign as we have done.”
Meanwhile, Forbes said the SNP would hold Labour “to account and ensure they do not forget about Scotland”, seeking a better deal for public finances.
