Salmond: Sarwar is in for a Rude Awakening

Responding to comments from Anas Sarwar made last night on STV, former First Minister and Alba Party leader Alex Salmond said:

“When I led the first pro independence Government into power in Scotland, people didn’t just vote for change because they were fed up of decades of being trapped in the yoke of Labour and Tory mediocrity, they voted for the positive change we offered.

“We pledged to scrap bridge tolls, introduce free prescriptions, put 1000 extra police on the street, protect the pensioners free bus pass and ensure that our young people could attend university and college without the life burden of fees. And we did all of this and much more whilst governing with competence and embarking on landmark infrastructure projects like the Queensferry Crossing, the Aberdeen Peripheral road, the Borders railway and completing the M74 that both Labour and Tory had abandoned for decades.

“Anas Sarwar is in for a shock if he thinks the people of Scotland are ready to make him First Minister when the Labour Party are offering Scotland the square root of zero and actively opposed to our right of self determination. People in Scotland have long memories. They remember Labour’s folly of Iraq, an illegal invasion that cost the lives of one million people and destabilised the entire region. They remember Labour’s incompetence and lack of ambition in administration in the Scottish Parliament.

“There is a simple truth that Anas Sarwar should realise: just because independence supporters have been let down in recent years by the SNP does not mean they are ready to return to the unionist Labour Party. If he thinks he can sit back and let the SNP hand him the keys to St Andrews House then he is in for a rude awakening.”