THE Tories have been accused of becoming “more and more desperate by the day” after sending out election leaflets apparently designed to look as if they came from their political opponents.

Ahead of the Holyrood election on May 6, the Scottish Tories have issued a campaign leaflet which uses the red traditionally associated with Labour.

The leaflet has “Labour” as the first word in the title and features newspaper headlines about the party and its UK leadership.

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It reads: “At the last Scottish election, many traditional Labour voters turned their back on the party because they feared it would not stand up to the SNP and their demands for another independence referendum.

“Five years on and it’s even worse.”

That second line is the only paragraph on the leaflet not to include the word “referendum”. The Scottish Conservatives are first mentioned in the final paragraph.

The imprint, the small text legally required to appear on election materials, makes clear that the leaflet is from the Scottish Tories.

A Labour source said that the leaflets showed the Tories were focused on “petty games”.

The National:

The source told the National: "The Scottish Tories are behaving more and more desperately by the day in this campaign.

"Our campaign is focused on a National Recovery Plan for Scotland, not petty games."

The Scots Tories insisted that the “colour of our leaflets has no bearing on the fact that Labour won’t stand up to the SNP”.

Other local elections across England, and the Senedd election in Wales, will be held on the same date as the parliamentary elections in Scotland.

Tories in London have been using a similar tactic, sending out leaflets designed to look as though they were issued by the Greens.

One such leaflet was viewed over 215,000 times on Twitter after being shared by the independent media outlet Bella Caledonia.

The Tory-issued leaflet, coloured green, claims that the party wants to “prevent home ownership”, “abolish the royal family”, “implement nationwide clean air zones”, and “double spending on foreign aid”.

It also says the Greens would like to “replace the Ministry of Defence with a Ministry for Peace”.

The policies outlined in the leaflet were well received online, with many suggesting that clean air, foreign aid, and peace were very desirable aims.

The SNP's Anne McLaughlin MP quipped: "If I didn't know better, I'd swear the Greens had written that themselves."

The leaflet was later shared more widely on other social media platforms, including Reddit and Facebook, erroneously attributed to the Scottish Tories, and had a similar reception.

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The imprint makes clear that the leaflet was originally issued by the Epping Forest Conservatives in north east London, who insisted that it was a “statement of fact”.

Les Burrows, the chair of that Tory association, told The National the Greens were “hiding their true values” and planned to implement “extreme left-wing politics”.

Gillian Mackay, the Scottish Greens lead candidate for the Central Scotland region, said the Tories had resorted to “childish” campaign strategies.

Mackay said: “The only reason the Tories resort to this childish, negative campaigning is because they have absolutely nothing positive to offer whatsoever.

"The Scottish Greens will continue to make the positive case for Scotland's future. We’re asking people to vote like our future depends on it; for bold climate action, to deliver a fair and green recovery from the pandemic, and to put Scotland's future in Scotland's hands."