Rishi Sunak urges Scots to vote Tory for tax cuts in Scottish manifesto launch

The Scottish Tories' manifesto has been launched highlighting tax, the NHS and schools.

Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, joined Scottish party leader, Douglas Ross, in Edinburgh and said the General Election was about “standing up to the SNP”.

The manifesto pledges were heavily weighted towards issues that are the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament and not Westminster.

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The manifesto promises include scrapping the 21% intermediate rate of income tax in Scotland and realigning the rate with the rest of the UK.

The rate is paid on earnings between £26,562 and £43,662.

Income tax is a devolved issue, voted on by MSPs at the Scottish Parliament, not MPs.

The UK Tory Manifesto launched earlier in the campaign put a National Insurance cut, which is a Westminster matter, at the forefront of the party’s message.

(Image: Getty)

The Prime Minister said: "Douglas and I are confident that we're going to make good progress here in Scotland and that's because people are responding very positively to the choice that's in front of them.

"A vote for the Scottish Conservatives means that you're going to have your taxes cut, in contrast to the SNP making this the high-tax capital of the UK already and Labour storing up thousands of pounds of tax rises for working people."

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On the NHS the Conservatives said waiting lists in Scotland were too long, and said schools needed restoring.

The two Tory leaders focussed their attention on the SNP, who the Conservatives will be in direct contention for several Scottish and not Labour, who polls suggest it losing power to across the UK.

The Prime Minister said: "It's only Douglas and his team that have been prepared to properly stand up to the SNP, standing against both Nicola Sturgeon's gender recognition reforms and the dangerous hate crime act. It shows you that only the Scottish Conservatives have the courage to stand up to the nationalists."

"If the SNP win the majority of seats at this election, they will treat that as a mandate to carry on campaigning for independence for another five years.

A vote for the Scottish Conservatives is a vote to put this issue to bed, to move past these tired and stale arguments and to go forward united and together."

The SNP meanwhile, said the two Tory leaders are “finished”.

Alison Thewlis, SNP candidate for Glasgow North said Sunak and Ross should "compare notes on which one has run the worst campaign".

She said "They are both on their last legs as leaders, their party is already finished in this campaign and the real choice for Scotland in this election is who is now best placed to put Scotland's interests first.

"The Tories deserve the democratic drubbing that is coming their way.

“From forcing Scotland out of the EU with a Brexit we didn't vote for, to Liz Truss's disastrous mini budget and the Tory cost-of-living crisis - people in Scotland have paid the price of Tory chaos and incompetence, which has left households poorer.

"And in the face of relentless Tory cuts, the SNP has done all it can within its limited power to make life better for people in Scotland - lifting 100,000 children out of poverty with the game-changing Scottish child payment, scrapping peak fares on trains, and expanding free, funded childcare for families in Scotland."