Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael has admitted he is facing a battle to hold onto the Liberal Democrats’ northern isles stronghold in May.
Orkney and Shetland is often described as the safest Lib Dem seat in Scotland, with Mr Carmichael winning 62% of the vote in 2010.
But the senior UK Government minister indicated yesterday that he believed the SNP surge was evident on the islands.
He predicted that the Nationalists would be his main challengers – and claimed they were already running an “unpleasant” local campaign.
Speaking to journalists at Westminster, Mr Carmichael said: “I’ve no doubt it’s going to be a pretty straight fight between myself and the Scottish Nationalists.
“And it’s pretty obvious from the letters column of the local newspapers that we can expect a pretty unpleasant, personalised, negative campaign.
“Personally, I don’t think that’s the way people on the isles like to do our politics, so I shall run a positive campaign on my record as a local MP and the record of my party in government, and I can point to a good number of significant local achievements.”
Asked if he expected it be a closer battle than at the last UK Parliament election, Mr Carmichael said: “I would expect it will be, yes.”
He added: “It would ironic to say the very least if the northern isles, which returned some of the most emphatic No votes, were then to find themselves with a Nationalist MP.
“But that’s the choice that people now face.”
SNP candidate Danus Skene defended his campaign last night.
He said: “We are looking forward to an uplifting and positive campaign focused on Orkney and Shetland having a strong voice at Westminster by returning an SNP MP, as part of an SNP team.
“The only person sounding a negative note is Mr Carmichael.
“People across Orkney and Shetland are fed up with the Lib Dems’ history of broken promises – and I will work hard to persuade people to put their faith in the SNP to empower Scotland, and make sure that Orkney and Shetland’s voices are heard loud and clear at Westminster.”
Mr Carmichael secured 11,989 votes in 2010, almost 10,000 more than his nearest challenger.
Just 29 votes separated the Labour, SNP and Conservative candidates in second, third and fourth place.
In May, Gerry McGarvey will contest the seat for Labour, Donald Cameron is the Conservative candidate, and Robert Smith will represent UKIP.