Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar will travel north of Dundee for the first time during the election campaign on Thursday.
Mr Sarwar set off from Stirling, launching his party’s second “battle bus” adorned with peach colouring, similar to the shade the regional voting list uses.
Both Labour and the Scottish Conservatives have started referring to the list sheet as the “peach party paper” as part of attempts to secure votes.
Votes an ‘afterthought’
Mr Sarwar said he was travelling the “length and breadth of Scotland” this week but the Scottish Conservatives accused the Labour leader of considering North East votes as an “afterthought”.
Harriet Cross, Scottish Conservative candidate for Aberdeen Donside, said: “Mr Sarwar’s visit is too little, too late to show Labour are bothered about the North East.
“From the debacle over supporting his councillors at Scotland’s top-rated local authority, to his weakness on backing oil and gas, it shows the vote here has been an afterthought for Sarwar.
“Only a vote for the Scottish Conservatives on the peach party ballot will return a Scottish Parliament that will hold the SNP to account, and get a government 100% focused on recovering from the pandemic.”
Games
Mr Sarwar said the Scottish Conservatives were “playing political games”.
He added: “We have one week to go. One week to ensure that the people of Scotland get a parliament focused on the national recovery, not the old arguments.
“We simply can’t come through the collective trauma of Covid and go back to the old arguments.
“While the Tories are playing political games, my only priority is delivering our national recovery from Covid.
“We have had 14 years of SNP broken promises and failure, we can’t afford to have a government or a parliament that takes its eye off the ball from the recovery. That’s why a vote for Labour matters.
Anas Sarwar vows to join Aberdeen Labour on election campaign trail
“For the next six days, I will be travelling the length and breadth of Scotland, taking Labour’s message of hope and unity to every community and saying that we can choose to focus on what unites us, not what divides us.
“If, like me, you believe we can work together to build a fairer and stronger Scotland than went into lockdown last year, vote for it using your second, peach, ballot paper for Scottish Labour.”