SNP and Labour final push  for votes in Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election - video Dailymotion

The Scotsman

SNP and Labour final push  for votes in Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election

Transcript

00:00 Hi, I'm Councillor Katie Loudon. We're in Hill House this morning. I've been in visiting

00:21 the community cafe this Wednesday.

00:23 Katie, one day to go. How are you feeling?

00:25 I'm feeling confident. I'm feeling full of beans just now. I have just had a very large

00:29 mug of coffee so that will help. But we're having some great chats with people today.

00:33 We're going to be continuing to work hard until tomorrow evening. We're just going to

00:37 go out and speak to as many people as we can.

00:39 So we're keeping a very close eye on what's going on in South Lanarkshire just now. So

00:43 there's a Labour administration in South Lanarkshire at the moment and they have actually tried

00:47 to pull something very similar with the same lack of consultation and that's on the fees

00:52 which sports clubs are paying to hire halls, swimming pools, football pitches and so on.

00:58 And it's a very similar story because it was done without any proper consultation and a

01:02 lot of people were very angry about it. I've fought against that in council and I'm going

01:07 to continue to do so because it's not good enough to take away vital facilities from

01:12 people and not give them the chance to respond and talk about it. And I would say very well

01:17 done to the residents of North Lanarkshire who have forced this quite embarrassing U-turn

01:22 to Labour in North Lanarkshire and to the SNP group as well.

01:26 Stammer has come up here to talk very much about what Scotland can do for him and not

01:31 for the other way round and we've seen that all the way through the campaign with a series

01:36 of embarrassing U-turns and then with the candidate claiming that he is personally against

01:41 things that Stammer has spoken about. So Stammer's failure to stand up against the two-child

01:47 cap, their failure to stand up against Brexit. So I'm not really surprised. It's just symptomatic

01:53 of the wider disharmony I think within the various factions and branches of all the people.

01:58 Keith Brown, deputy leader of the SNP in support of our candidate Katie Loudon for the by-election.

02:03 It's obviously the last day before the poll so making sure that the vote that we've identified

02:07 already has motivated me to be ready to come out and trying to identify any new voters.

02:12 I heard that I learned that Anna Sarl was very confident but I remember one of his many

02:16 predecessors, Jim Murphy, saying that he was surprised how easy it was to beat the SNP

02:21 shortly before the loss of over 40 MPs. So I wouldn't listen too much to Anna Sarwar.

02:25 We've got the best candidate here, I think we've got the best campaign and of course

02:29 that gives us confidence for tomorrow. I think of course the SNP has challenges, as do all

02:33 parties. I mean if you look at the fiasco that's happening down in Manchester today

02:37 with the Labour Party, the flip-flopping that's happened over recent months. So there's no

02:42 question that parties have challenges but tomorrow people are electing an individual

02:46 and we've got the best individual on the ballot paper in Katie Loudon and that gives me confidence

02:50 that we can win this by-election. You're right to say there are pressures for councils.

02:54 How could it be otherwise when we've had 13 years of austerity, 40% cut down south to

02:59 council budgets. 40% cut. Of course that feeds through through consequentials to Scotland

03:04 so there's no question this Tory obsession with austerity is having a long-term effect

03:09 on public services and that's one reason for making sure we send the strongest possible

03:13 message tomorrow by voting for Katie Loudon who will make sure that the voice of people

03:17 in this constituency is heard by the Tory government in the last few days I would imagine

03:22 of their administration.

03:23 I'm Michael Shanks, Labour's candidate in Rilligan and Hamilton West. Well I feel a

03:35 bit like the voters here, ready for the election now to happen tomorrow. People have waited

03:39 a very, very long time here for their chance to elect an MP that will be a real champion

03:43 for the community. I hope that they'll tomorrow go to the polls and vote for the fresh start

03:47 that we've outlined during this by-election. What's important in this by-election is what

03:51 we've outlined here which is an MP fighting for the community. What people are bringing

03:54 up on the doorsteps is the cost of living, the NHS. Those are the kind of choices that

03:59 people are going to have to think about on the ballot tomorrow and we've outlined our

04:02 plan for how we will put money back into people's pockets and fight for a fresh start in this

04:06 community. That's what's important to people. I think people here have a real chance tomorrow.

04:10 It's been a long time coming. We've had almost three years of not being represented properly.

04:16 People are fed up with both our governments and they're using their opportunity to vote

04:20 for something different. I hope to be a champion for this community and that's what's on the

04:24 ballot paper tomorrow. I mean turnout's important in elections. We want people to use their

04:28 chance to vote in this by-election. A lot of people have voted by post already. We're

04:32 hoping the weather will be better than it is today and people will take that chance

04:35 to go out and vote. But it's an important by-election so people should take that opportunity

04:39 and they need to remember ID when they're going to vote.

04:42 We've got a phenomenal candidate in Michael Shanks who's worked really hard in this by-election

04:47 campaign. I know he'll be an absolutely phenomenal MP for this constituency. But look, we've

04:51 still got work to do and over the course of the next 24 hours we will do everything we

04:55 can to get as many people out voting in this by-election so we can get a positive result.

05:00 And what I'm most proud about this campaign is that ours has been a relentlessly positive

05:05 campaign where we've focused on the issues that matter to people here. The cost of living

05:09 crisis, the NHS crisis. Contrast that to an SNP campaign that's all been about attacking

05:14 Labour. And I think the thing that's become increasingly clear in this campaign is that

05:18 it's now Scottish Labour that's the party for change and the SNP are anti-change. The

05:23 SNP has lost its way. It's a party in decline. It's managed by a leader that's clearly out

05:29 of his depth and we have a government that's incompetence is now there for everyone to

05:33 see. And as a contrast to that you have a confident, forward-looking, future-looking

05:38 Scottish Labour Party that is now rooted as a party of change.

05:41 [Music]

05:47 [MUSIC]

SNP and Labour final push for votes in Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election

Category

Transcript

Recommended