• Truss: Conservative Leadership contenders must pledge to strip her of £115,000 allowance
• Scotland’s trains are ‘erratic and expensive’ under the SNP
• Rennie responds to MUP rise
• Scot Lib Dems respond to Truss leadership claims

Truss: Conservative Leadership contenders must pledge to strip her of £115,000 allowance

Responding to Liz Truss’s appearance at Conservative Party Conference, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper MP said:

Liz Truss’s failure to recognise the economic vandalism that she oversaw is a kick in the teeth to all those who endured their mortgage rates spiralling and were worried about losing their homes as a result of her disastrous policies.

It’s outrageous that instead of calling out the damage that she did, the Conservative Party actually allowed her to stand as one of their candidates at the General Election.

Every Conservative Party Leadership candidate must condemn Truss’s terrible record and pledge that they would strip her of her ex-PM allowance of up to £115,000 a year.

Scotland’s trains are ‘erratic and expensive’ under the SNP

Scottish Liberal Democrats have highlighted their plans to make Scotland’s rail services cheap, reliable and frequent as the SNP bring back peak fares today (Monday 30th September), with passengers now being hit by higher ticket prices and a reduced timetable.

In August, the SNP government announced that it would reintroduce peak rail fares, meaning that the price of the top ticket between Glasgow and Edinburgh has now risen by 8.6% to £31.40.

This hike comes as ScotRail continue to operate a temporary timetable with far fewer trains available. In total, about 600 services were slashed from the ScotRail timetable, with only around 50% of services running on Sundays.

Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson Daniel O’Malley said:

For more than two years, SNP ministers have been responsible for the railways. In that time, they have produced a service that is as erratic as it is expensive.

This SNP government are completely out of touch. Even when Parliament voted for the government to reverse their decision to hike fares, the SNP simply chose to ignore it.

Scottish Liberal Democrats want a reliable rail service which everyone can afford to travel on. It’s a win-win that would bring down costs and help tackle the climate crisis.

That’s why my party would cut fares, roll out flexible two/ three-day a week season tickets and explore new lines in areas which suffer from poor public transport links.

Rennie responds to MUP rise

Responding to the minimum unit price rising to 65p, Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP said:

Scotland has an enduring and unhealthy relationship with alcohol. Excessive consumption hurts individuals, families and communities.

Scottish Liberal Democrats were the first party to call for an increase in minimum unit pricing. The original impact of minimum pricing has decreased over time as inflation has eaten away at the effectiveness of the policy.

More than 20 people a week in Scotland die due to alcohol misuse. The opponents of minimum pricing need to explain what alternatives they are proposing to tackle the pressures that this imposes on our health and justice systems.

Scot Lib Dems respond to Truss leadership claims

Responding to Liz Truss’ claim that the Tory party would have done better in the general election if she had still been the leader, Willie Rennie MSP said:

Liz Truss was already a record breaker with her very short time in office but she would have matched that with an even more disastrous election result than Rishi Sunak. That’s because her economic policy was a disastrous and cost millions of people dear.

It was the Conservative Party, including Russell Findlay and the four contenders to be U.K. Conservative Leader who put her there. Their judgement should never be trusted again.