Douglas Ross has suggested Conservative supporters should vote for Labour candidates in their constituencies if they have the best chance of stopping the SNP.
The Scottish Tory leader said people should “look at their individual constituency and vote for the strongest candidate” capable of defeating the SNP, even if that was not a Tory.
Ross made the comments during a BBC Scotland radio phone-in, after one caller said he was thinking of voting Labour because their candidate had a better chance of unseating the SNP MSP.
Asked “should a Conservative vote for Labour, who have a chance of winning?”, the Tory leader replied: “I think, across the country, people should look at their individual constituency and vote for the strongest candidate, which in most cases is a Conservative candidate, to defeat the SNP.”
Pressed repeatedly by the caller to answer “yes or no” about whether people should vote Labour if their candidate stood a better chance of winning than a Tory he replied: “I’ve just said, vote for the strongest party to stop the SNP.”
The Tory leader stressed that it was crucial for pro-Union supporters to back his party with their regional list votes, arguing this could prevent an SNP majority.
He said: “People can choose to do what they think is right in the constituency vote, and I hope as many people as possible vote Conservative, particularly where we have got a very good chance of winning across Scotland.”
The prospect of an electoral pact against the SNP has been repeatedly dismissed by Labour’s Anas Sarwar.
The Scottish Labour leader said: “Is not for politicians or political parties to try and game the system, I don’t think that would be appropriate for right.”
“Our voting system was designed to encourage different political parties to work together in the national interest to change Scotland to make it fairer and stronger place.”
Sarwar added: “We can change the frame of our politics, we don’t have to accept this binary choice be put in front of us by the SNP and the Tories for their own self interest, not the national interest. That’s what my focus is going to be in this entire election campaign.”
