David Bol Edinburgh Sunak Visit

The Scotsman

David Bol on this morning's visit of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to launch the Scottish Conservative Manifestowith Scottish Tory Leader Douglas Ross at The Apex Hotel in The Grassmarket, Edinburgh

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm David Bowle, the Scotsman's Deputy Political Editor. I'm at the Glassmarket in

00:08Edinburgh where Douglas Ross and Rishi Sunak have been launching the Scottish Conservatives

00:13manifesto for the election. Just over a week out from the general election, it's very late

00:18to be launching a manifesto. The document itself was a lot of devolved issues that really

00:24aren't on the ballot paper at the general election. Stuff about improving roads, although

00:28the Conservatives at Westminster have kind of moved to try and improve some roads, even

00:34though they're devolved, as part of the levelling up strategy. There was things committing to

00:38improving the NHS and schools and police officers, all things that are really the responsibility

00:45of the Scottish Government at Holyrood and won't really be on the agenda or have any

00:50influence in changing until the 2026 election, which we know Douglas Ross is stepping down

00:56after the Westminster election. There was talk about independence, basically saying

01:02that sending a message to the SNP and reducing their number of MPs at Westminster would basically

01:08put the independence question to bed for a generation, was the word that was used. We've

01:12heard that generation before and it's obviously not stuck with the independence campaign,

01:17but that is what the Tories are pitching, is to vote for the Tories and the Conservative

01:22candidates to kind of shut out the SNP and to end this obsession, as they would call

01:27it, with independence. Rishi Sunak talked to journalists after the launch of the manifesto

01:34and was basically not saying very much about his future, very much saying he would like

01:39to carry on and he's very keen to carry on, he's up for the fight essentially, but if

01:46we look at the polling it's looking pretty dismal for Rishi Sunak and the Tories. Douglas

01:51Ross is obviously standing in that North East constituency and the Scottish Tories

01:54are putting a lot of effort and energy into that seat. We're just more than a week, less

02:01than two weeks away from polling day and it'll be interesting to see if that manifesto has

02:06any influence on people, many of whom have probably made up their mind already.

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