RICHARD Leonard will today say that Scotland by “embracing real change” and supporting Labour will make itself the key to putting Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.
The new Scottish Labour leader, in his first foray to Westminster since beating Anas Sarwar for the Scottish party’s crown, will address MPs and peers at the weekly Parliamentary Labour Party meeting in the Commons. He will also attend a meeting of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee and have private talks with the Scottish Labour Group of MPs.
In August, Mr Corbyn, ahead of a five-day visit north of the border, declared: “Scotland holds the keys to delivering a Labour government for the whole United Kingdom.”
Having done much better in the June General Election than many had expected, when the party increased its number of MPs from one to seven, insiders have been keen to point out that Scottish Labour could have gained more with just a slightly improved swing.
The party’s HQ has calculated that Labour would need to win more than treble its number of Scottish MPs at the next election for Mr Corbyn to stand any chance of seizing power.
However, a Survation poll this weekend on Westminster voting intentions put Labour in Scotland ahead of Ruth Davidson’s Scottish Conservatives. It suggested, when undecideds were removed, that the SNP was on 38 points, Scottish Labour 29, the Scottish Tories 24 and the Scottish Liberal Democrats seven.
Ahead of his visit to Westminster, Mr Leonard said: “Scotland desperately needs a Labour government to deliver the radical change we need to see and it will be Scotland that delivers a Labour government for the whole UK at the next General Election.”
He claimed Scotland had “grown sick after seven years of Tory austerity and 10 years of SNP mediocrity,” which was why Scottish voters were moving back to Labour.
“We are winning a new generation of young people, energised by Labour’s new politics of change,” declared the Central Scotland MSP.
“Young people are not simply following this movement for real change, not just participating in this movement for real change, they are leading this movement for real change.
“The next election, whenever it comes, can be a turning point for Scotland and the whole of Britain. It can be a moment of decisive change in our society and our economy.
“It will show that inequality, injustice and poverty are not inevitable, and that austerity is a political choice not an economic one. It will deliver a Labour government,” he added.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel