Cameron, Miliband, Sturgeon and Clegg in final appeal to Sunday Post readers

Party leaders each address our readers in the last days before General Election 2015.

Conservative

At every election every politician makes you lots of promises. So that’s why I am happy to be judged not only on what we will do in the next five years, but on our record over the last five years. In the teeth of the financial storm which we inherited, we are turning our great country around. The Great Recession has become the Great Recovery. In Scotland, 178,000 more people in a job and taking home a pay-packet. We’ve taken 261,000 people out of paying any tax altogether, petrol’s a tenner a tank cheaper than it would have been under Labour, the welfare bill is under control and business start-ups are flourishing. Our economy’s on the mend, mortgage rates low and living standards are on the rise again. And for our elderly, we kept your rights to free TV licences, winter fuel allowances and the triple lock pension guarantee. All of that achieved and the deficit cut by half.

So Thursday matters. It is the most important General Election for a generation, we can’t let the others wreck what you, the British people, have achieved. In Scotland, the choice is clear. Labour and the LibDems are down and out. They have sunk. They are not winning here. Switching to them would be like jumping onto a sinking ship.

The SNP are even more extreme than Labour. They would tax, spend and borrow even more, all the while eyeing up the chance to reopen the referendum wounds of last year. Only one party in Scotland is on the up and standing up to the SNP. Only one vote can secure the recovery and secure our United Kingdom. Ruth Davidson and the Scottish Conservatives.

David Cameron

Labour

In just four days you will make a decision about the future of our country. The stakes at this election are high – we can either have a country that goes on working for a few at the top. Or change, with Labour, and the opportunity to build a country that works for working people.

For the Labour Party this election has been about a simple truth: when working people succeed, Scotland and Britain succeeds. I want to call time on the Tory’s failed plan. And this is what I want to do to change our country.

An end to the Tory’s tax cut for millionaires, because when times are tough it should be those with the broadest shoulders who bear the burden. An increase in the minimum wage to over £8 an hour, because a hard day’s work should mean decent pay. A tax on banker’s bonuses to fund jobs for our young people, because too many are not getting the chances they need to thrive in life. Protection for pensioners with a cap on pension fees and charges to stop rip-offs and a ‘triple lock’ to make sure that the state pension rises each year. And Labour will protect winter fuel payments and continue with the bus pass which gives freedom to so many.

I call on you to be part of changing our country this Thursday. Not just bringing an end to this Tory Government, but changing once and for all who our country is run for. And then for the next five years, you can call on me to stand up for you and build the kind of country we all know Scotland and Britain can be.

Ed Miliband

SNP

Scotland is on the verge of a historic opportunity to hold unprecedented power and influence at Westminster. With a strong team of SNP MPs, we can achieve real change at Westminster putting Scotland’s priorities on the agenda and ensuring your voice can’t be ignored by the establishment parties any longer. We can end the austerity cuts which have held back our economy and hurt hard-working people in communities across the country. And we’ll free up £140bn of investment in things that really matter including a total of £2bn extra funding for Scotland’s NHS, and a triple lock on pension rises and single tier pension of £160 to ensure a fairer deal for our older people.

And we’ll work with progressive partners from across the UK to ensure the Westminster parties don’t waste £100bn on new nuclear weapons at a time when more children are being pushed into poverty and more families are forced to rely on food banks.

Ed Miliband’s disastrous revelation that he would rather let the Tories back in than work with the SNP to keep David Cameron out of office will galvanise even more people to vote SNP. His extraordinary remarks make it even more important that Scotland unites to elect a big group of MPs to give Scotland a decisive position at Westminster, and lock the Tories out.

But we won’t be able to achieve any of this without your support. This election is not about independence or another referendum. So whether you voted Yes or No last September, and if you’ve never voted SNP before, I’m asking you to come together and put your trust in us on Thursday to make Scotland stronger at Westminster.

Together, we can make Scotland’s voice heard like never before and ensure that your priorities are firmly on Westminster’s agenda and I promise that if you put your faith in us, we will not let you down.

Nicola Sturgeon

Liberal Democrats

It’s clear that whatever they claim neither David Cameron nor Ed Miliband will win a majority in this election. This means that someone else is going to have a huge influence over the direction of our country. That’s why it is so crucial who holds the balance of power on the 8th of May. It could be Nigel Farage. It could be Alex Salmond. Or it could be me and the Liberal Democrats.

There is a real danger we will see a Government that will lurch away to the extremes of left or right. The only way to stop this is for there to be enough Liberal Democrat MPs to keep the next Government in the centre ground. Across much of Scotland from East Dunbartonshire, to Inverness, to Gordon the Liberal Democrats are the only party who can stop the SNP. In these 11 Scottish seats, voters face a simple choice: do you want an SNP MP or a Liberal Democrat MP?

The SNP are not the party of Scotland, they are the party of debt. They will keep a minority Labour Government on life support, limping from vote to vote towards the break-up of the UK. The Liberal Democrats are working for Scotland in a way that is responsible, fair and keeps the country on track.

We will deliver more powers for Scotland; balance the books to secure the recovery, cut tax for those on low and middle incomes, and fund the Scottish NHS with £800 million extra.

We will provide the stable government that the economy needs building a stronger economy and fairer society, with opportunity for everyone in Scotland.

Nick Clegg