Cole-Hamilton to declare Lib Dems will finish ahead of Conservatives at Scottish election

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton will use his speech to the Liberal Democrat autumn conference in Bournemouth to declare that the party will overtake the Scottish Conservatives at the forthcoming Scottish election.

Alex will say:

“People used to compare the number of Conservatives in Scotland to the number of pandas at Edinburgh Zoo. Now all the pandas have packed up and left. The way things are going, they’ll soon be followed by Russell Findlay’s Conservative Party.

I know others in the Conservatives are considering their positions. You can quite literally see them squirming in their seats at Holyrood.

People right up and down the country are turning their backs on the Scottish Conservatives too.

Kemi Badenoch sneers at us for being the party that will be active in your community, for being the ones that turn up and fix your church roof.

That shows exactly why the Conservatives have lost the public’s trust.

Getting stuff done for our local communities is our bread and butter. It’s what we’re all about.

And it’s what people are crying out for.

So if you took a chance on Ruth Davidson but aren’t willing to stay for Russell ‘McFarage’ Findlay, then come with us.

If you took a chance on a broad-church vision of the Conservatives, but aren’t willing to stay for the economic illiteracy and the language of the far-right, then come with us.

If you took a chance on Ruth Davidson, but aren’t willing to stay for the climate change denial or the nasty party they have returned to, then come with us

While Ed Davey and our campaign teams were knocking down the Blue Wall, we were winning more seats than the Scottish Conservatives north of the border.

And we can overtake them in May too.

Conference, for the first time in the history of Holyrood, the Scottish Liberal Democrats WILL beat the Conservatives.”