Both the Tories and SNP are “out of time” and should be out of power at Westminster and Holyrood, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey declared.
With a general election due to be held sometime this year, he urged his party’s supporters to make it a “once in a generation” ballot, by electing a “whole new generation of Liberal Democrat MPs”.
His plea came as he insisted his party could take the UK’s “broken” health service and fix it “with care”.
Sir Ed said the “scandal” of delayed discharge – where patients who are medically well enough to leave hospital have to stay while waiting for arrangements for their care to be made – could be ended by hiring more carers.
He called for a “higher minimum wage for all carers across the UK”, as he also urged the UK Government to write off benefits overpayments made to those who claim Carers Allowance while looking after a loved one.
His comments came as he addressed the Scottish Liberal Democrat spring conference in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire – marking his first campaign visit north of the border since John Swinney took over from Humza Yousaf as First Minister and SNP leader.
And the Liberal Democrat leader used his speech to hit out at both the Tory Government at Westminster and the SNP administration at Holyrood.
Both Governments, Sir Ed said, had shown people “that they cannot be trusted with the economy, their health, the environment or our place in the world”.
He told supporters that people “have had enough” of both the SNP and the Conservatives – branding them “two tired old parties” that are “out of touch, out of excuses and out of time”.
He told his party: “It’s up to us to get them out of office.”
Sir Ed continued: “I firmly believe that we can make this a once-in-a-generation election, electing a whole new generation of Liberal Democrat MPs”.
ED: The other parties are too inward looking, too comfortable with the status quo, to realise. They just don’t seem to get it.
— Scottish Lib Dems (@scotlibdems) May 18, 2024
Scotland needs change. The UK needs change.
And simply installing a new Prime Minister, or a new First Minister, just won’t cut it.
He said: “Scotland needs change. The UK needs change.
“And simply installing a new prime minister, or a new first minister, just won’t cut it.
“I would accuse the SNP of rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. But that would imply that they’re any good at building and launching a seagoing vessel in the first place.”
That remark was a jibe at the failure of the state-owned Ferguson Marine shipyard on the Clyde to build two new ferries to serve the islands off Scotland’s west coast – with the vessels now several years late and massively overbudget.
