RUSSELL Findlay has been slammed for claiming the “independence dream is dead” in his speech at the Tory conference in Birmingham today.
The new Scottish Tory leader – who took over from Douglas Ross on Friday – also took aim at the SNP, blaming them for “bitter divisive arguments about breaking up the United Kingdom”.
He told delegates: “John Swinney has said he's never been more convinced of the case for independence. Nicola Sturgeon says she's absolutely certain that Scotland will be independent in her lifetime. Humza Yousaf has called for - get this - international mediation” to secure independence. For goodness’ sakes this is Scotland, not Sudan.
“Alex Salmond has said famously and continues to say that the dream shall never die.
“Well let me tell you Salmond, Sturgeon, Swinney and Yousaf: the dream is dead.”
The SNP hit out at the comment, saying Findlay and the Tories have "no ambition for Scotland".
A spokesperson said: "Findlay was elected as Tory leader in Holyrood by a party membership of less than 7,000."
"Around 50% of people already support independence. Findlay's naive comments and his party's lack of vision for Scotland will only work to increase the numbers of those backing Yes.
In response, the ALBA Party said Findlay is “living in dreamland”.
The party’s General Secretary Chris McEleny said: ““ Russell Findlay is living in dream land if he thinks that people in Scotland want to go back to the nightmare of the last fourteen years of Tory Government: living standards down; the economy broken; and Scots left in fuel poverty despite living in an energy rich land.
“Ironically for the Tories, it is a Labour Government - with their cut to the Winter Fuel Payment and their faces straight into the troughs that the Tories left them - that are proving to people in Scotland that independence is the only way Scotland can choose its own future free from the moral vacuum of Westminster.
That is why Alex Salmond is correct when it comes to the need for Scottish independence as an urgent priority.”
