Willie Rennie claims Lib Dems 'ready to win' in Scottish election

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Alex Cole-Hamilton today launched his campaign to become the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats after the resignation of Willie Rennie earlier this month. The Edinburgh Western MSP, who was first elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2016, ruled out a second referendum taking place.

He told the Express in an interview today: “If I become leader, there is no change to a second referendum.

“We don’t believe in independence.”

The MSP claimed Scotland “had gone backwards” under the SNP because the party “cares about one thing and one thing only, independence.”

Core issues, he claimed, including education, child poverty, mental health, drug deaths and cancelled operations had been ignored under the SNP led Scottish Government.

Mr Cole-Hamilton, who launched his campaign outside the Boardwalk Beach Club in Edinburgh this morning, declared: “Scotland needs new hope right now.”

He stressed under the current UK political system Scotland was “gripped” by the nationalisms of the SNP and “Boris Johnson’s Brexiteers”.

The Scottish Parliament politician also claimed the SNP “pivoted” during the last election campaign to focus on leading the country out of the pandemic rather than framing it as securing a mandate for another vote.

He added: “For all the questions that Scotland faces right now, the answer to none of them is another divisive independence referendum.

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“Let’s remember also, Nicola Sturgeon talks about a mandate for a second independence referendum – that mandate is tainted, it’s no good.

“Any way you slice it, the SNP don’t have a mandate. They need to get on with the day job.

“Our public will not forgive this parliament if we spend all the next five years navel-gazing about the constitution.”

Mr Cole-Hamilton also expressed his desire for the UK to rejoin the EU once again and made clear the party would make the case to the Scottish people.

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He admitted the party “lost the referendum” but said: “I think there is a role for the party to try and draw Britain back into the European Union.”

Outlining how Britain can forge closer ties with Europe, he said: “Initially that’ll just be through cooperation, through closer association, but over time I think it will become imperative and undeniable, unanswerable, that our best future would lie with Europe.

“I recognise there’s a long road for that but it’s a road I’m committed to taking because I’m not going to meet the loss of one union I care about by junking another union I care about.”

He concluded: “I’m a passionate internationalist, I believe we are better when we can forge unions with our nearest neighbours and that’s the UK but ultimately that’s Europe as well.”

On his priorities for Scotland, he added: “My challenge will be to reach out beyond the fortresses that we’ve built and speak to greater parts of the country.”

The leadership contest was triggered after Mr Rennie announced he was standing down after 10 years at the top of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

No other candidate has yet come forward to succeed the departing Mr Rennie, with nominations closing on August 20.

Express.co.uk understands Mr Cole-Hamilton could be elected to the party leadership unopposed with no other candidates due to come forward.

The Scottish Lib Dems lost one seat in May’s Holyrood election, leaving the party with four MSPs.

However, Mr Cole-Hamilton secured the highest number of votes of any candidate in the history of the Scottish Parliament, with 25,578 people casting their constituency ballot for him.

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