The “unique” pro-Europe and pro-union position taken by the Liberal Democrats will pay dividends for the party at the upcoming council elections, Scottish party leader Willie Rennie said on a visit to Aberdeen yesterday.
In a local government campaign that will be driven by constitutional issues as much as potholes and street lighting, Mr Rennie said that the shift in opinions “will help the party grow” on May 4.
The north-east Fife MSP arrived to meet Aberdeen candidates on the day the party launched their manifesto pledging their backing for a federal UK and proposing a referendum on the terms of the Brexit deal.
The party has suffered large set backs in the north-east in the past ten years – previously being the largest group with 15 councillors in Aberdeen after the 2007 vote.
This tumbled to just five in 2012 with voters punishing the party for entering the coalition government in Westminster.
But Mr Rennie said yesterday that attitudes had shifted since the 2014 independence referendum and that infrastructure and funding issues for the north-east would be at the heart of their campaign.
He said: “The SNP want to present themselves as in favour of working partnership with others only when it applies to Europe and the Tories say they’re in favour of working with others but only as it applies to the United Kingdom.
“So we’re consistent, we want to work with others right across the United Kingdom and Europe. We’ve got a unique position.
“And that combined with the fact that our councilors have a good solid track record, and our candidates too, of campaigning all year round and not just at election time.
“The general perception among the SNP in the central belt is that this is an oil-rich part of the country and it doesn’t need any extra support.
“But it has been taken for granted for far too long, we’ve not had the investment in infrastructure we need…
“When you think of the amount of wealth that this region has brought to Scotland and the return that it has had- it falls far short of what is required.”
When quizzed about the SNP and Greens putting local issues at the heart of their campaigns, Mr Rennie said: “There is no good for the SNP and Greens to be complaining now that independence might be dominating this campaign when it was them that put us in the position.”
