Why Scotland could be the deciding factor in the next general election

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Scotland will be a key battleground in the next general election, Conservative chairman Greg Hands has said, adding that votes for the party north of the border could prevent Sir Keir Starmer of Downing Street.

With the SNP 'weakened' amid turmoil over the police inquiry into its finances, Mr Hands said there was an opportunity for the Tories to win seats in the next UK election, likely to be held next year.

He said the SNP had "a dedication to incompetence and mismanagement of public services and public finances that even the Labor Party would envy".

Mr. Hands predicted that the SNP's time in power at Holyrood "is going to end in tears", meaning his party has "the opportunity not only to keep what we have but also to move forward and make gains across Scotland".

< p>He told the Scottish Conservative Conference in Glasgow: "Make no mistake, Scotland will be one of our main battlegrounds in of the upcoming UK election.

"Scotland could be the deciding factor in this election, whether we have a full mandate from Rishi Sunak or something else under Sir Keir Starmer."

However, he warned Tory members that with a number of seats "on the edge", the party will "need all the votes we can muster".

The Prime Minister and SNP leader Humza Yousaf has already said another independence referendum will be the price to pay for supporting Labor in Westminster, and Mr Hands said the Tories 'must therefore show that a A vote for the SNP is a vote for more chaos, not just in Scotland, but also potentially at UK level." our party, the Scottish Conservatives, is the only party capable of beating the SNP in those seats.

In 2017, the Scottish Conservatives returned 13 MPs to Westminster, helping to keep the Conservatives in power.

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Mr. Hands said this meant Scottish Conservatives at the time refused Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn "and his fellow socialist hardliners to form a Frankenstein alliance with Nicola Sturgeon at...