Senior Liberal Democrats yesterday took aim at the SNP as the stage was set for a general election battle to defend the party’s Highland and Aberdeenshire seats.
Lord Paddy Ashdown, campaign chief for 2015, led the charge against the Nationalists. whom he identified as the “primary opponents” in key constituencies in the north.
Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said he wanted to “wipe the smile off Alex Salmond’s face” in Gordon, while energy Secretary Ed Davey claimed the SNP was risking massive public spending cuts by relying too heavily on North Sea oil receipts.
The claims made at the first day of the party’s Spring conference in Aberdeen yesterday came against a backdrop of more deflating polling results for the Liberals.
A survey by Survation projected support for the party had slipped to just 4%. The SNP, meanwhile, appears to have extended its national lead over Labour to 21-points.
Danny Alexander, MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, is fighting for his political life, while Sir Robert Smith in West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine and Lord John Thurso in Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross are facing a strong challenge.
The Lib Dem candidate for Gordon, Christine Jardine, is also trailing Mr Salmond in the polls, although the Liberals suggested private analysis showed the seat, and others, could be won.
Lord Ashdown said the SNP have “taken their eye off the ball” and attacked their record on the NHS, policing and fiscal policy.
He said: “The SNP want to borrow £181billion more, £181billion. The interest on that alone is £4.7billion a year from Mr Salmond’s mountain of debt.
“That’s a new primary school every other day that we have to pay as interest. This is economic irresponsibilty to an almost laughable degree.”
Mr Clegg, in an evening speech to a rally at the conference centre, said the party’s “resilience” would show through in May.
He added: “That resilience will see off the SNP challenge in the seats we hold. And it will wipe the smile off Alex Salmond’s face in Gordon too.”
Mr Davey, who had earlier announced new powers for North Sea regulator the Oil and Gas Authority, said the SNP was playing “fast and loose” with the Scottish economy. Revised projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) this week showed the tax revenues for 2016/17 are line to be about £600million, more than 10 times less than the SNP had forecast in its white paper for independence.
Mr Davey said: “That basically means that your pensions are at risk, your jobs in the health service are at risk, your teachers are at risk.
“The SNP prospectus was a false prospectus and it is a false prospectus that they are putting forward to the Scottish people in May. I hope the Scottish people, who are very canny, who are very canny about money, recognise that it is a false prospectus and demand from the SNP candidates what would they actually do, how they would make their sums up with this oil price.”
Earlier, a defiant Mr Alexander brushed the SNP challenge to his seat, chanelling film star Arnold Schwarzenegger when he told the conference “I’ll be back.”
He said: “We’re fighting to save the soul of this country from a clueless Labour party, a heartless Conservative Party and reckless Nationalists.
“Conference, your fortitude in these difficult times has enabled liberalism to deliver so much in these past five momentous years.
“Don’t believe those who write off the Liberal Democrats. Let me tell you. I’ll be back. We’ll be back. And because of us, Britain will be back too.”