Judging by the show of hands in the auditorium of the Perth Concert Hall tonight, both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak had a fair bit of work to do to win over Scottish Tories. Many put their hands up to say they hadn’t yet decided who to back when asked by the host Colin Mackay. Mind you, many of them then went on to boo Mackay for asking questions of both candidates that they found annoying. Normally when an audience boos a journalist in Scotland, it’s blamed on the SNP and that party’s dislike of scrutiny. Tonight, though, it was the Conservative party.
Neither candidate has said that much about their plan for Scotland prior to today’s hustings. Neither offered much in the way of hype beforehand either: Rishi Sunak revealed he wants the Permanent Secretary of the Scottish government to give evidence to Westminster select committees, while Truss announced MSPs would get full parliamentary privilege if she became Prime Minister.
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