Election TV debate fallout dominates Scottish campaign

 

The fallout from Thursday night's ITV general election debate is dominating the Scottish campaign trail.

The SNP pointed to the results of snap polls as it claimed victory in the debate for its leader, Nicola Sturgeon.
The Conservatives said the debate had shown that only two of the seven leaders who took part had a chance of becoming prime minister.
And Labour said it had made "crystal clear" the choice facing Scottish voters on 7 May.
The Liberal Democrats said the debate had shown UK politics had become more fragmented, with voters dissatisfied with the game of "pass-the-parcel" between Labour and the Conservatives.

  

Ms Sturgeon has returned to Edinburgh, and is to visit a pharmacy in the west of the city, where she will argue that a strong team of SNP MPs will put an end to austerity, as well as take a stand against the privatisation of England's NHS, which has knock-on effects for Scotland's budget.
The SNP was buoyed by the performance of its leader in the televised debate, which saw Ms Sturgeon attempt to reach out to voters in England by saying that SNP MPs at Westminster would be "a voice to help bring about change for you too."
The party said more than 1,200 new members had joined during the two hour long debate, and said the combined results of three snap polls by ComRes, ICM and YouGov released after the debate suggested Ms Sturgeon was judged to have performed best by 21.7% of respondents.
This was marginally higher than David Cameron's 21%, with Ed Miliband on 20.3%, Nigel Farage on 20% and Nick Clegg on 9.3%, the SNP said.

'Crystal clear'

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy and Glasgow Central candidate Anas Sarwar will be in Glasgow to launch the party's pledge to ban "exploitative" zero hours contracts.
Speaking ahead of the event, Mr Murphy said the TV debate had "made crystal clear the choice facing Scots at the general election".
He said: "In the debate there were seven passionate speakers but only two potential prime ministers. There are lots of ways to protest against David Cameron but only one way to replace him.
"We can either have a prime minister in Ed Miliband who will make life fairer for working class Scots and bring an end to failed Tory austerity, or we can have David Cameron's unfair cuts that have done so much damage to families in Scotland."
Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson, is campaigning in Musselburgh on the day of the town's Good Friday race meeting.