Rishi Sunak denied being scared to face voters after making a carefully stage managed visit to a Highland port as election campaigning kicks off.
The prime minister visited Port of Nigg on Thursday, after a whistle-stop tour which saw him make campaign stops in Derbyshire and south Wales earlier in the day.
He met bosses at the port – which is part of the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Freeport – before taking questions from journalists.
Asked if he was scared of meeting Scots on the street, Mr Sunak said: “I’ve been out and about across the UK today. I’ll be elsewhere tomorrow talking to people and I’ll be doing that everyday for the next six weeks.
“And the choice at that election – that’s the debate I want to have, it’s about the future of this country.
“Economic stability has been returned, that didn’t happen by accident it happened because we had a plan, we stuck to that plan even though it was difficult.
“And people can see the results now and now I want to build on that.”
The visit was in the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross constituency, a seat the Tories haven’t even graced with a candidate yet.
But Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said: “We have 42 of our 57 candidates already in place. In the next week, we will have all our candidates in place up and down the country.
“People know in key seats it’s going to be a straight choice between the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP.”
PM ‘happy’ to debate Sir Keir
The prime minister said he was “happy” to debate Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer “as many times as possible over the next few weeks”.
But he refused to apologise for holding the country-wide vote on July 4 – during the school holidays for many areas of Scotland, including the Highlands.
“Inflation is back to normal and wages have now been rising faster than prices for 10 months,” he said.
“The economy this year has grown at a healthy rate and energy bills are falling, so this is the moment to think about the future.”
PM quizzed on windfall tax
The trip to Scotland comes just a day after he pulled the trigger on the general election campaign in a rain-sodden speech outside Downing Street.
The Tory party leader is hoping to hang onto votes in seats where the party go head to head with the SNP, including in the north-east and Moray.
But his government was slammed by oil and gas leaders earlier this year after announcing they would extend the windfall tax an extra year.
Mr Sunak denied embarrassing Mr Ross over the move, which he opposed.
He said: “No – because Douglas and I have had conversations ever since I was Chancellor about delivering for people in Scotland and you can see that in the two freeports.
“You can see it in the persistent freezes for spirits duty which is something Douglas talks to me about on a very regular basis, direct levelling up which has gone into Scotland, the support for the energy industry.
“Of course, the government has had to make difficult choices but we’ve been unequivocal and joined at the hip together in support of the energy industry, particularly with new licences.”
Conversation