The prime minister will today turn his fire on the SNP – and brand the party “spendthrift, out-of-touch, dogmatic and inept”.
In an all-guns blazing address to the Scottish Conservative conference, David Cameron will argue that the Tories are “the only party that can challenge” Nicola Sturgeon’s administration.
Opinion polls have put Ruth Davidson’s party within touching distance of clinching second place at the Scottish Parliament elections in May.
The prime minister will join other speakers, including Scottish Secretary David Mundell, in addressing the conference at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield stadium today.
He is expected to say: “We’re the party that can challenge the SNP – now the only party that can challenge the SNP.
“They’ve been in power for nine years – they are the establishment. And with Labour’s collapse, Scotland is in danger of becoming a one-party state.”
He will tell the audience of Conservative members that the SNP’s record in government is a “litany of failure”.
He is expected to add: “It falls to us, the Conservatives, the only party fit to expose these spendthrift, out-of-touch, dogmatic, inept nationalists for what they really are.”
Ms Davidson will take to the stage after the prime minister, when she will outline a commitment to invest £1billion in the Scottish NHS.
She is expected to say: “It’s a fact – not well known – that between 2010 and 2015, the SNP failed to keep up with spending increase on the NHS.
“During that time, spending on health in England rose by 7%, but by only 1% in Scotland.
“That’s why we propose that the Scottish Government backs a new NHS guarantee, that spending on our health service should rise each year by whatever is highest – inflation, 2% or by the extra funding coming from Westminster.
“Every penny passed on.
“That would mean health spending rising by more than £1billion by the end of this decade.
“Conference, we need to care for our NHS. The SNP has failed to do so over the last five years.
“Vote for us and my team will make sure they have to.”
Meanwhile, the SNP has today published an analysis which it claims shows David Cameron is the “least popular leader in Scotland”.
SNP MSP Linda Fabiani said: “The Scottish Tories under Ruth Davidson and David Cameron are already at their lowest ebb in 150 years, and unless they quickly buck-up their ideas and commit to reversing their regressive policies, things are only going to get worse for the quickly diminishing band of Tories in Scotland.”