{"id":517546,"date":"2026-04-07T12:05:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/517546\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T12:05:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:05:17","slug":"scottish-parliament-election-2026-conservatives-launch-manifesto-as-parties-hit-the-campaign-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/517546\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish Parliament election 2026: Conservatives launch manifesto as parties hit the campaign trail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Party leaders sell their vision of Scotland’s futurepublished at 11:38 BST<\/p>\n

11:38 BST<\/p>\n

Scotland’s political leaders have already been on the campaign trail for nearly two weeks since the Scottish Parliament session ended on 25 March.<\/p>\n

\"JohnImage source, Getty Images<\/p>\n

John Swinney has pledged to improve NHS performance, help first-time home buyers with a \u00a310,000 grant and expand free childcare. The SNP leader has also said his party would secure a second independence referendum if it won a Holyrood majority.<\/p>\n

\"russellImage source, Getty Images<\/p>\n

Russell Findlay has urged unionist voters to rally behind his party to prevent an SNP majority and a second referendum. He says the next parliament should be using all their energy to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, bring down people’s bills and grow Scotland’s economy.<\/p>\n

\"anasImage source, Getty Images<\/p>\n

Anas Sarwar has unveiled plans to recruit 2,000 specialist teachers to help children who have fallen behind in literacy and numeracy catch up, as well as an additional 1,500 classroom assistants. The Scottish Labour leader aims to position himself as the leading candidate to replace Swinney as first minister.<\/p>\n

\"RossImage source, Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay have pledged to to expand free childcare and to provide free bus travel for all. The Scottish Greens co-leaders say they want a fairer, greener Scotland and will propose “additional taxes for the super rich” to help fund better services.<\/p>\n

\"alex<\/p>\n

Alex Cole-Hamilton has said The Scottish Lib Dems could deprive the SNP of a majority by winning 10 constituency seats and returning more MSPs on the regional ballot. The party’s leader vowed to delier first-rate health care, help with the cost of living and get Scottish education back to its best.<\/p>\n

\"malcolmImage source, Getty Images<\/p>\n

Malcolm Offord says Reform UK has a vision to cut taxes, unlock economic growth and deliver practical solutions on the issues that matter most to communities across the country. The party’s leader north of the border has also declared his intention to become first minister.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Party leaders sell their vision of Scotland’s futurepublished at 11:38 BST 11:38 BST Scotland’s political leaders have already…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-517546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}