Scottish Lib Dems itching for return to the big time with 'monumental' Holyrood election
The Lib Dems are itching to return to the big time - and May’s election could be the party’s launchpad
The Scottish Liberal Democrats are chomping at the bit to play a bigger role in Scottish politics - with May’s election seen as a launchpad for the party to ride a UK-wide wave of new-found popularity.
The party’s leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton, is thirsty for a return to the Scottish Lib Dems’ heyday before the SNP came to power in 2007.
Bluntly, Mr Cole-Hamilton told party activists at the spring conference in Edinburgh that “the next 10 weeks could be the most important in our party’s history”, adding that “the coming election is wide open”.
“We stand on the threshold of a huge revival.”
READ MORE: Lib Dems aim to 'deprive' SNP of Holyrood majority with 10 target seats and reclaim Highlands
It is clear that the Scottish Lib Dems are on the cusp of being flung back into the big time - at a crucial moment for Liberal voices to be heard amid the noise created by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and both Labour and the Tories shifting to the right in reaction.
The Lib Dems are eyeing up 10 constituencies this time around. In at least eight of them, it looks like the party has a very good chance of winning. Two others, Argyll and Bute and Inverness and Nairn, could be winnable if the party has a good night and some fortune.
READ MORE: Lib Dems' bold election strategy will copy Tories' and Greens' success with Holyrood list vote push
In his keynote speech, Mr Cole-Hamilton acknowledged that winning 10 constituencies “would be a monumental leap forward” from the last four Holyrood elections, where four or five seats has been the norm.
“The opportunity to make big gains on the regional list is absolutely massive”, Mr Cole-Hamilton added.
“They could turn a great night for our party into an unbelievable night”.
From the first Scottish parliament in 1999 until Alex Salmond snatched power for the SNP in 2007, the Lib Dems were a party of government, in coalition with Labour.
It is clear Mr Cole-Hamilton wants, one day, to take the Lib Dems back into the big time.
With some polls showing the party is looking at around 13 per cent of the vote, if that comes to fruition, the Lib Dems have the potential to make huge gains on the regional list vote - with Mr Cole-Hamilton confident his party can elect an MSP for every part of Scotland.
The Lib Dems have set out some flagship education policies, with more details to come in the manifesto as polling day draws nearer.
Mr Cole-Hamilton confirmed a pledge for “a new route for qualified primary school teachers stuck in precarious work to quickly gain the right to teach in secondary schools”.
He stressed this would end the “scandal” of qualified teachers being forced “to move abroad to find work or spend years in jobs where they can’t pay the bills”.
Ed Davey, a close ally and friend of Mr Cole-Hamilton has visited Scotland several times over the last few weeks and will give his keynote conference address on Saturday knowing that a buoyant Scottish Lib Dems alongside the several expected gains in English local elections, could make May 7 one of brightest moments of his leadership so far.
The signs have been there for the past few years that the Scottish Lib Dems are on their way back - with successful local elections in 2022, before winning more seats north of the border than the Scottish Tories at the 2024 general election.
But for the Scottish Lib Dems, May’s election is a genuine chance to rekindle the belief the party has a crucial role to play at Holyrood as a calm voice amongst an increasingly extreme political landscape.
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