“WE’RE HERE to win,” was the Conservatives’ optimistic message as Maurice Golden, the party’s Glenrothes by-election candidate, was joined by Annabel Goldie MSP and David Mundell MP for the campaign launch in Markinch yesterday.

The blue balloons were out for the start of the campaign which, said Miss Goldie, aims to convince Fifers the Tories are the “safe choice” amid a global economic crisis and the SNP’s plans for an independent Scotland.

Miss Goldie, who leads the party in Scotland, said, “I think everybody is sitting back and taking a short, sharp look at where we are in the world. And frankly, I think an awful lot of people are saying the independence argument is now becoming irrelevant.

“We’ve seen how fragile Scotland is in the turmoil of global crisis. I think people in Glenrothes are saying we want change, but we don’t want what Labour has dished out to many of its most loyal supporters and we don’t think voting for the SNP is the right way to go about getting that change because it’s simply stamping Alex Salmond’s passport to independence.

“What I think people are saying is the Conservatives actually represent safe change. And that’s the message we’ll be taking very clearly to the doorsteps of this constituency.”

Mr Golden said, “We’re here to win. With David Cameron’s lead, we’re seeing people switching towards the Conservative Party and, canvassing on the doorsteps here in the constituency, we’re seeing people switch from Labour to Conservative.”

Although not at the launch in Fife, it is understood Mr Cameron plans to visit the constituency.

The UK Conservative leader described Mr Golden as a “first-class candidate.”

He said, “As we showed in Glasgow East, there aren’t any no-go zones for the modern Conservative Party.

“And in Maurice Golden, we have a first-class candidate—a Fifer bursting with energy and full of enthusiasm to serve the people of Glenrothes. I’ll be up there with him on the streets campaigning and delivering our message of change.

“If reports are to be believed, Gordon Brown is going to be there, too. It will present a unique opportunity to people who are fed up with this government to tell him what they really think.”

Turning to the economic crisis, Mr Mundell, the shadow secretary of state for Scotland, said it was no time for “partisan point-scoring.”

He said, “This is a time of crisis. I don’t think people here in Fife or people across the UK want to see political point-scoring.

“During what is a very difficult time, particularly for two of Scotland’s most important institutions in RBS and HBOS, I think it’s important for politicians to come together.”