Nicola Sturgeon has said it is insulting to suggest SNP voters have been brainwashed into blind loyalty for the party.
Setting out the party’s bid for a third term at Holyrood, the First Minister said those who voted for the SNP were impressed by their record in government during unprecedented engagement in Scottish politics.
She also said she hopes the public vote to stay in the EU, but a UK referendum result that takes Scotland out against its will may well constitute a material change of circumstances to trigger Indyref2.
In an article released yesterday, Ms Sturgeon attacked claims from opposition parties and some commentators that the country had abandoned its critical faculties in favour of blind loyalty to the SNP.
She said: “Those who support the SNP have not been brainwashed, they are not blind to our imperfections instead, they are weighing them against our strengths and achievements, and against the other parties, and deciding that the SNP is the party they most closely identify with, the people they trust most to stand up for Scotland.”
Scottish Labour sources said they had never claimed voters had been brainwashed and that it was SNP politicians who had been the victim of a control-freakish party HQ.
Leader Kezia Dugdale is launching Labour’s bid for the May election with a direct appeal to younger voters, amid falling home ownership, sluggish wage growth and high levels of student debt among Scots in their twenties and thirties.
Responding to Ms Sturgeon’s comments, Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said while some have been swept along by the hysteria, the Scottish people will judge the SNP “on what they’ve already failed to achieve”.
“With a poor record on education, NHS, justice, transport, infrastructure, jobs and our economy voters will be seeking answers to these failings created by the SNP government,” he added.
Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrats leader, said Ms Sturgeon’s “opinion poll cockiness” is a distraction from the SNP’s “mismanagement” of the police, NHS, schools and colleges.