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SHAMELESS Ruth Davidson claimed she was too busy to defend brutal Tory cuts to disabled Scots – then went on a boat trip photo op instead.

The Conservatives were the only party to dodge an election hustings organised by the Glasgow Disability Alliance in the city yesterday.

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More than 300 people had turned up desperate to be given some kind of explanation for changes to benefits that have left them struggling to survive.

Booing rang out across the room after a message was read out claiming Tory candidate Thomas Haddow had pulled out and that none of his colleagues were available as a replacement.

But party leader Davidson did have time to have fun on a trip to Loch Katrine in the Trossachs,

where she posed for pictures on a steamship.

Incredibly, the Record has learned the Tory leader even found time to call in to STV studios yesterday – just a mile from where the meeting was being held – where she complained the channel hadn’t sent a camera crew to cover her cruise earlier in the day.

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A source said: “She was in the STV office for a bit after her boat trip photocall to film a piece in the studio.

“It wasn’t like there was raised voices or anything, but she was clearly none too happy that we had not been able to send a camera crew to Loch Katrine.

“At the end of the day there are news priorities and her boat trip just didn’t have much news value.”

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The STV studios on Clydeside in Glasgow are just a six-minute drive from the Radisson, where the Glasgow Disability Alliance meeting was taking place.

Davidson also found time to canvass for votes in Rutherglen with Glasgow Anniesland candidate Adam Tomkins yesterday.

Rise candidate for Glasgow Cat Boyd last night slammed the Tories for failing to turn up and defend their own policies.

She said: “I think it is a disgrace that the party driving the attacks against disabled people didn’t

have the guts to show up at this hustings today.

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“The way disabled people are being treated is faceless and alienating and takes away people’s power and dignity, and that has to stop.”

The SNP’s James Dornan added: “They couldn’t find anyone to be here? They couldn’t find anyone brave enough to face you.”

Davidson was a Glasgow MSP in the last parliament but is trying her luck in Edinburgh at the election next Thursday.

There is less than a week until the Holyrood election.

A Tory spokesman said: “We take hustings extremely seriously and our candidates have attended

hundreds across the country in this campaign.”

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The SNP said the decision meant the Tories weren’t there to answer for their shameful record in

Government, which has seen painful cuts fall on services for the most vulnerable.

A spokesman said: “The Tories have an appalling record of mistreating people with disabilities – with a vindictive and harmful approach to welfare sanctions and the introduction of the bedroom

tax having a devastating impact on many.”

Candidates taking part in the day-long event included the Greens’ Zara Kitson.