SNP Depute leader warns 'Labour will give way to the Tories'

The SNP’s depute leader Keith Brown is set to tell his party’s annual conference that “independence is Scotland’s only chance to escape Tory chaos”.

Opening the SNP’s 88th annual conference in Aberdeen, Brown is expected to say that although recent polls show a UK Labour government will likely enter power in Westminster, it will inevitably be replaced by another Conservative government.

Brown is expected to say: “We know through the bitter lessons of history that Labour are only ever the handmaidens of more Tory rule. If they get into power, they are soon turfed out by the Tories and gift to them the same powers of Westminster control they always abuse. It’s a pattern repeated time after time after time.

“Your homes, your pensions, your incomes are not safe under Westminster control. It is a price that Scotland can no longer afford to pay. Be in no doubt, independence is Scotland’s only chance to escape Tory chaos for good.”

Responding to the speech, which has been sent around journalists ahead of delivery, Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “There you have it in black and white – the SNP do not care whether the next UK government is run by the disastrous Tories or a reforming Labour government.

“It is clear for all to see that the SNP’s claim to be a progressive party is a sham. They don’t care about kicking out this disastrous Tory government, all they care about is their narrow nationalist obsessions.

“No amount of spin can hide the SNP’s disastrous governance of this country – or its dangerous stewardship of the NHS.”