RISHI Sunak and Liz Truss are visiting Scotland. Like the man they hope to replace in No 10 though, they won’t be speaking to just any old member of the public – they most likely won’t be safely vetted Tory voters after all.
The two contenders to take over from Boris Johnson as the worst Tory prime minister the UK has ever had are due to appear at a hustings in Perth on Tuesday evening.
Ahead of their arrival, Yes.scot – now a campaigning arm of the SNP – headed over there to find out what the people living in the Scottish city thought of the two Tory leadership hopefuls.
“I honestly can’t say politely what I think of Liz Truss,” the first person on camera begins.
And it doesn’t get much easier viewing for the Foreign Secretary – or the former chancellor – from there…
“We either have somebody who is ignoring Scotland, or somebody who doesn’t know where it is,” another member of the public jokes.
The references are to Truss's ill-advised claim that it's best to "ignore" Nicola Sturgeon, and Sunak's apparent belief that Darlington is up in the Highlands somewhere.
But, as they note, is it really a joke when the stakes are so serious?
🏴 The Tory leadership debate is in Perth today - we asked the people in Perth what they think of Sunak and Truss. pic.twitter.com/zmnX69C4Yr
— Yes (@YesScot) August 16, 2022
One thing is for sure. Playing to a crowd of the faithful in Perth – a place which was formerly considered a Tory stronghold (now held by the SNP at council, Holyrood, and Westminster level) – Truss and Sunak will have little fear of encountering such dissenting views during their stage-managed visit to Scotland.
It looks like they have learned a little something from Boris "sneak out the back door" Johnson.
