Douglas Ross urges Nicola Sturgeon to 'name time and place' for working class tour

Douglas Ross has accepted Nicola Sturgeon’s challenge to join her on a visit to working-class communities, telling her to "name a time and a place".
 
The two clashed after the Scottish Tory chief used a speech at his party’s conference to tell delegates: "We are the party of working-class unionists in Scotland now because we represent their values."
 
Asked about the comment, Sturgeon told a journalist: "I've just been re-elected as First Minister with a historically high share of the vote, including in working-class communities across Scotland, so perhaps let the facts and the reality speak for themselves.
 
"The shame of these Tories - they are about to take food out of the mouths of children in working-class communities the length and breadth of Scotland, including in Douglas Ross's own constituency, and they have the nerve to make comments like this.”
 
She then said Ross should “come with me and I'll introduce him to some working-class communities across the country and then he'll see who's in touch with them and who is horribly out of touch with them, because the Tories, like him, are doing them so much damage every day right now."
 
The Tory leader hit back by saying he would take up the offer if it was somewhere which has been hit hard by drug deaths. He suggested the First Minister's Glasgow Southside constituency.
 
He said: “Name the time and place. I’ll go with Nicola Sturgeon to one of the working-class communities devastated by the drug death crisis that has spiralled out of control on her watch.
 
“We could start with her own constituency, where she let a rehab centre close in 2019. 
 
“Nicola Sturgeon took her eye off the ball on the national shame of drug deaths and abandoned working class communities. 
 
“Thousands of families lost loved ones because the SNP slashed rehab beds, which the Scottish Conservatives campaigned successfully to restore.
 
He added: “I’m proud of my working class background and I’d never abandon the communities I grew up in, in the way that Nicola Sturgeon is doing.
 
He then followed that up with a tweet this morning, saying: “My office has been in touch. Name a time and place @NicolaSturgeon."
 
The SNP has been approached for comment.