A senior Liberal Democrat has claimed the European elections are a chance to send a message to the Scottish Government to stop “ignoring” the Highlands.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander accused the SNP of being an “Edinburgh, Nationalist elite”, out of touch with local wishes.
He joined with Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP Charles Kennedy and the party’s Euro candidate George Lyon on the streets of Inverness on Tuesday.
Mr Alexander, MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, said the regular deployment of armed police on the streets, the use of police horses in Inverness and plans for average speed cameras on the A9 Perth-Inverness road, showed the SNP were not listening to local people.
“We have an SNP government in Edinburgh that is consistently ignoring, setting their face against what the people in the Highlands want,” he said.
“I think these elections are an opportunity for people to send a message that people in the Highlands are fed up with it.”
Mr Alexander dismissed polls that indicated that Mr Lyon – the Lib Dem’s only Scottish MEP – might lose his seat.
“He is someone who has a good track record of speaking up for the Highlands,” Mr Alexander said.
“I don’t think the polls actually capture the fact that the level of support in rural areas are a big part of the campaign in the European elections.”
With 14,000 Highland jobs dependent on Scotland’s place in Europe, the Lib Dems warned that the SNP and Ukip were presenting a “false choice” to voters.
Mr Alexander said while Ukip wanted to break from Europe, SNP independence plans would effectively have the same result.
“Although very different parties, their plans to pull us out of the UK and wrench us out of the EU would have exactly the same damaging effect on Scotland and our economy,” he said.
“Both believe in narrow-minded nationalism and both are bringing our relationship with Europe to the brink.
“The SNP tell us that their European renegotiation will be seamless, protecting all the opt-outs Scotland shares as part of the UK. But the SNP cannot dictate the terms on which they co-operate with other states, cherry-picking what they like and rejecting everything else.”