Conservative chief whip Michael Gove has claimed that Labour and the Liberal Democrats are in “meltdown” – with nearly half of their supporters switching to the SNP.
The Aberdeen-raised minister will arrive back in the north-east today to campaign with the party’s candidate in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Alexander Burnett.
Mr Gove made the remarks to the Press and Journal after a new YouGov poll showed the Nationalists unchanged on 49%, with Labour continuing to trail on 25%.
A breakdown of the figures also revealed that just a fifth of those polled who voted Lib Dem in 2010 will do so again next month, while almost half of them will switch to the SNP.
They also show only 48% of Labour voters in 2010 will back them again, with 45% going to the Nationalists.
Mr Gove said: “Labour is in meltdown. The Lib Dems have ceased to be. They have both lost vast swathes of their voters and nearly half of their support now plans to vote SNP.
“The SNP is strong because Labour and the LibDems are so weak.
“Only Ruth Davidson and the Scottish Conservatives are on the up and standing up to the separatists.”
He added: “In West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine people don’t want to risk throwing away all the hard fought gains of the last five years.
“They don’t want to Scotland to sleepwalk to independence by the back door. Only the Scottish Conservatives can beat the SNP.”
The West Aberdeenshire seat is currently held by Sir Robert Smith for the Lib Dems, but Mr Burnett and the SNP’s Stuart Donaldson are expected to challenge on May 7.
A Lib Dem spokeswoman said: “This is bamboozling. Michael Gove’s argument is a dead parrot.
“The Conservatives haven’t won many of our seats for decades and with only one Conservative MP in Scotland they’d be better served sounding the retreat to the Dumfriesshire to defend their last seat.
“The increasingly desperate conveyor belt of senior Tories only makes clear that in seats like West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine the Liberal Democrats are best placed to stop the SNP.”
The seat is also being contested by Labour’s Barry Black, Richard Openshaw from the Greens, Independent candidate Graham Reid, and Ukip’s David Lansdell.