Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron criticises SNP record on rural issues

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron was in Scotland today to campaign with the Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for Aberdeenshire East, Christine Jardine.

As he joined the Scottish campaign trail, the Liberal Democrat leader criticised the SNP’s record north of the central belt and on rural issues.

Farron discussed the impact of the delays to Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments, GP shortages and the effect that centralisation of public services has had on the area as he met voters in Inverurie.

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Farron said: “This is the first Scottish election when people are really starting to judge the SNP on their record.

“And the further you get from the central belt in Scotland, the more you get a sense that people don’t believe the SNP cares about rural communities.

“We’ve seen the terrible way they’ve handled farm payments.

“Farmers should have been paid what they are owed months ago. We’re now nearly into May and the delays have led to a huge black hole in the rural economy.

“Liberal Democrats stand up for the communities for they represent.

“There is real Liberal Democrat strength in Scotland, our MSPs punched well above our weight at Holyrood and voters know that people like Christine won’t take rural Scotland for granted.”

The comments come as figures published on the Lib Dem Hame blog showed that over the first four and a half years of the last parliament the five Scottish Liberal Democrat MSPs asked an average of 483 written questions each.

This compares to Scottish Labour MSPs on 342 written questions each, Conservative MSPs on 201 and SNP MSPs on 38 each.