DOUGLAS Ross visited the Borders this week ahead of the Scottish Parliament election on May 6.

The leader of the Scottish Conservatives was in Coldstream yesterday (April 29) as part of the party’s campaign trail.

Mr Ross was joined by fellow Conservative Rachael Hamilton, who is hoping to be re-elected as the Holyrood representative for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire next week.

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Mr Ross said: “Voters here in the Borders can send the SNP a clear message on May 6 that they don’t want another divisive referendum.

“All our focus should be on our recovery and rebuilding our communities. Instead, Nicola Sturgeon wants to drag this area back to the politics of division and through another independence referendum during our recovery phase.

“Communities here are acutely aware of the effects of breaking up our Union. They resoundingly said in 2014 that they wanted to stay part of our United Kingdom.”

Mr Ross said the focus in the Borders should be on protecting jobs, “tackling the backlog in our health service” and ensuring pupils catch up on learning after school closures due to coronavirus.

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He added: “Focus on those issues is what you will get if you re-elect Rachael Hamilton as your MSP.

“She has been a strong voice for this area and I know she will continue to put their interests first.

“If pro-UK voters also unite around the Scottish Conservatives on their peach party list ballot papers, we can stop an SNP majority and stop their threat of indyref2.

“Border voters helped do that in 2016 and they can do so again.”

Mrs Hamilton said it was “good to have Douglas Ross here in Coldstream”.