Mandelson vetting row a ‘distraction’ in Holyrood campaign, Cole-Hamilton says

Questions about the vetting process for Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador are a “distraction” to the issues that matter to people in Holyrood’s election campaign, Alex Cole-Hamilton has insisted.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader was on the campaign trail in Fife to highlight his party’s offering for rural Scotland.

The visit to a falconry centre came after the Prime Minister visited Scotland over the weekend – but opted not to campaign with Scottish Labour in the run-up to the Holyrood election on May 7.

“I don’t think Keir Starmer is a particular asset to Scottish Labour’s campaign at the moment,” Mr Cole-Hamilton said.

Speaking to the Press Association, the Liberal Democrat leader added that the Prime Minister “certainly has questions to answer about what he knew about the Mandelson vetting situation”.

However, he said this was “a distraction to the issues that really matter on the doorsteps to people in this election campaign, which is about getting access to a GP appointment at the first time of asking, making sure that Scottish education is back to its best taking phones out of classrooms and putting pupil support assistants into them, and tackling the crisis in our NHS while driving down the cost of living”.

The Liberal Democrats want to introduce a “fair deal for rural healthcare”, which they say could help increase the number of services, treatments and diagnoses that are available to people in their local community.

The party also believes that allowing more teacher training to be done remotely could make it easier for people living in rural and island communities to train to be teachers.

The party’s package also includes work to develop more homes across rural Scotland, support for the agriculture sector and higher fines for littering, with new restitution orders to tackle the problem of fly-tipping that would make offenders pay for the clean-up of dumped waste.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “Scottish Liberal Democrats believe that power is better when it is wielded close to home.

“We want to push more power out into communities because local people know which issues matter most to them, whether that be access to local GPs and dentists or action on the cost of living.”

He continued: “It has been a tough few years for rural and remote communities. People are tired and frustrated.

“Scottish Liberal Democrats are putting forward positive ideas to deliver change; cutting red tape for farmers, a new fair deal for rural healthcare and making it easier to recruit teachers in rural areas. There is no doubt that we are the best party for rural Scotland.”