Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has insisted his party is “winning again” as he kick-started the campaign for May’s Holyrood election.
The Lib Dems won four seats in the previous Scottish Parliament vote and Mr Cole-Hamilton said he is “focused” on boosting that number this time round.
The party is targeting 10 constituencies across Scotland where it believes it can win, taking some seats from the SNP.
Mr Cole-Hamilton launched the Lib Dem campaign at Newhaven harbour, in the Edinburgh Northern seat he hopes to win from John Swinney’s party.
The Lib Dems are also hoping to see MSPs returned as a result of the second, regional ballot which makes up part of Holyrood’s proportional representation system.
Speaking to the Press Association ahead of formally launching his party’s 2026 election drive, Mr Cole-Hamilton said he is “looking forward to the campaign”.
He added: “My ambition is to lay out a positive vision for change with fairness at its heart, where people can vote for a party that believes in better for Scotland.
“We are winning again in 10 target constituencies, but wherever you are, a vote for the Liberal Democrats on that second, peach coloured regional ballot paper is a vote for change with fairness at its heart.”
With the SNP having been in power at Holyrood since 2007, he said people across Scotland are “tired and frustrated – and they’re right to be”.
He added: “We think Scotland deserves better than this and we have a vision for change with fairness at its heart.
“That’s why Scottish Liberal Democrats are going into this election promising to end the crisis in our NHS by fixing social care, lifting up Scottish education by taking mobile phones out of classrooms and putting pupil support assistants in, getting Scotland moving again by fixing our roads, fixing our ferries, and driving down the cost of household bills by heating cold Scottish homes with renewable power and insulating them as well.”
Mr Cole-Hamilton said his message to voters is: “You can have all of this by backing the Scottish Liberal Democrats.”
Polling in the run-up to the May 7 election has shown the SNP comfortably ahead, with some suggesting Reform UK – led by Malcolm Offord in Scotland – could come in second place.
Mr Cole-Hamilton however said the Liberal Democrats are a “counter for Reform”.
He added: “We stand for a very different vision of change than that mean-spirited one offered by Lord Offord and Nigel Farage.”
He said both Reform and Mr Swinney are “part of the problem” in Scotland.
“They don’t represent the kind of vision for change with fairness at its heart that Liberal Democrats are standing for,” he insisted.
