SNP accused of hypocrisy as they use diesel election bus that would fall foul of their own pledge on green vehicles
The SNP has been accused of ‘hypocrisy’ after it emerged their election battle bus runs on diesel despite its green manifesto promises.
The yellow coach featuring John Swinney’s photograph was hired from Lanarkshire company Parks of Hamilton and is currently touring the country.
The latest nationalist manifesto lays out a commitment to ‘promote a fair and affordable transition to zero-emission transport fuels and ban the import and sale of new, non-zero emission buses by 2025.’
But the party’s bus runs on diesel fuel, sparking accusations of hypocrisy.
Businessman Donald MacLeod, a critic of the party’s decision to impose a Low Emission Zone on Glasgow, said: ‘They might have the brightest colour out there to get themselves noticed but yellow to me is the colour of cowardice.’
First Minister John Swinney and his deputy Kate Forbes with the diesel powered SNP battle bus that would fall foul of the SNP's green manifesto pledges
Mr MacLeod, the owner of several Glasgow nightclubs that have been impacted by Glasgow’s Low Emission Zones, a policy backed by the Scottish Government to improve emissions, said: ‘They are tone deaf. They do not listen. It’s terrible, people are getting hammered here.
‘The fact that its diesel really sticks in the throat. Given Glasgow is plagued by LEZs and is under such scrutiny for emissions.’
Scottish Conservative MSP Douglas Lumsden said: ‘The SNP want to ban the sale of new non-zero emission buses next year yet are happy to use a gas guzzler themselves. As usual, it’s do as I say, not as I do.’
He added: ‘It’s typical of the SNP’s hypocrisy that they’re happy to use a battle bus running on diesel at the same time as they want to shut down Scotland’s oil and gas industry.
‘It would be madness to turn off the taps in the North Sea - as the SNP and Labour are intent on doing - as it would cost tens of thousands of North East jobs and force us to import fossil fuels from overseas with a far higher carbon footprint.’
