Scotland’s political leaders have stepped-up their election campaigns with less than a week to go until the country heads to the polls.
As the race for Holyrood enters the final stretch, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon embarked on a three-day tour of the country along with Deputy First Minister John Swinney and deputy party leader Stewart Hosie.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, meanwhile, will visit Aberdeen and the north-east today to promote her party’s manifesto.
Polling suggests the SNP still enjoys a comfortable lead in the race for Holyrood, while the battle for second place between Ms Dugdale’s party and Ruth Davidson’s Scottish Conservatives remains finely poised.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has pledged to take his “bold and positive” campaign to areas his party “have not campaigned in for years”.
Speaking in South Queensferry before embarking on her tour, Ms Sturgeon said: “As we enter the final week of campaigning the SNP is the only party with a clear plan to take Scotland forward.
“The Labour Party find themselves in complete disarray on almost every policy issue, and the Tories cannot hide their plans to tax students and scrap free prescriptions. They simply cannot be trusted to protect Scotland’s interests.”
The first minister added: “With just seven days to go I am asking people across Scotland to put their trust in me and to back a strong SNP government with a positive, ambitious plans to shape a better future for Scotland.”
But Ms Dugdale, who earlier visited the Enchanted Forest nursery in Robroyston, accused Ms Sturgeon of running a campaign designed to “deceive the Scottish people”.
She added: “Change only comes if people vote for it.
“It won’t happen automatically and it definitely won’t happen by voting for the SNP or the Tories when their plans will mean billions of pounds worth of cuts to schools and other vital public services.”
Mr Rennie, who spent yesterday morning having a quad bike lesson in Auchterhouse, said he would be expanding the reach of his campaign.
He said: “There are towns in Scotland that Lib Dem leaders have not campaigned in for years.
“We are going to change that. People right across the country are responding to our penny for education policy and our plan to make Scotland the best again.
“Over the next few days we will get the message out in new areas that a vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for education, mental health, climate change and civil liberties.”
Ms Davidson, meanwhile, used a visit to Dumfries and Galloway to suggest Labour’s position on renewing the Trident nuclear deterrent was a “complete farce”.
She added: “There was once a time when Labour stood up proudly for a strong defence and for workers’ jobs.
“Now it is lining up alongside the SNP with an unworkable proposal which would only wreck our nation’s defences.”