Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar launch Scottish Labour's general election campaign

The Scotsman

Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar launch Scottish Labour's general election campaign in Glasgow

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03 And a man who wants to be a prime minister

00:13 for every part of our country and deliver

00:16 to the people of Scotland.

00:17 Friends, please welcome my friend, Keir Starmer.

00:20 [APPLAUSE]

00:29 Hi, I'm David Bowle, the Deputy Political Editor

00:31 of The Scotsman.

00:32 I'm here in Glasgow, where Anna Sauer and Keir Starmer

00:35 were launching Scottish Labour's general election campaign,

00:38 very much making a point of that Scotland

00:40 is crucial to Labour's campaign nationally and, obviously,

00:43 here in Scotland.

00:45 Keir Starmer was very clear that Scotland

00:48 would be central to the mission of a next UK Labour government,

00:52 pointing to those energy plans that we've already

00:54 heard about, that Scotland will play a crucial role in that,

00:57 talking about the sort of levelling up he's going to do

01:00 in terms of workers' rights.

01:01 He's going to expand workers' rights,

01:04 give Scots a real living wage, and basically making the point

01:07 that Scotland is key to his plan to become

01:10 the next prime minister.

01:12 Anna Sauer himself was kind of appealing to SNP voters who

01:16 maybe haven't voted Labour before,

01:18 insisting that he's changed the party from the days

01:21 where maybe some people were a bit uncomfortable voting

01:23 for Labour, and very much pitching Labour

01:25 as giving voters a real choice of change.

01:29 Change is the key word, Labour, we've seen constantly

01:32 so far since the campaign started,

01:35 just making it clear that Scotland

01:37 is pivotal to that change, and not just sending MPs,

01:41 as the SNP do and as Labour has claimed,

01:44 is of a protest vote and having a loud voice at Westminster,

01:48 but actually being round the table in a UK Labour

01:50 government and being influential,

01:52 actually bringing about that change for Scotland

01:55 and across the UK.

01:56 We still don't know some of the details of these policies,

01:59 that will obviously come when we get the manifesto,

02:01 there'll be a Scottish one and a UK one that Labour will produce,

02:05 but very much showing that Scotland is key to his plan

02:08 here, there's a lot of noise, and very much just kind of

02:12 build that sort of focus that it's important,

02:15 Scotland's important, this is one of the first visits

02:17 that Keir Starmer has made on this campaign

02:19 trail a couple of days in, I'm sure we'll see more of him,

02:22 and it's very much just a pitch to Scottish voters

02:25 that they can make a big difference in Keir Starmer's

02:27 sort of attempt to become Prime Minister.

02:30 For the SNP, they'll be looking at this thinking,

02:33 well, Labour have been very loud,

02:35 but they haven't actually promised or produced

02:37 anything specific yet that voters can sort of cling onto

02:40 and think, that's a policy I can support and I can back Labour.

02:44 So those two will be battling throughout the campaign,

02:47 and we'll just have to wait for the specifics before we

02:50 know what Scottish voters are looking at.

02:52 The general election we've all been waiting for

02:54 was announced just on Wednesday, and Keir's here today

02:56 on the Friday, launching the Scottish Labour Party

02:59 campaign with an assart of a simple message,

03:01 that he wants to not just send a message to Westminster,

03:04 but send a Labour government with Scottish Labour MPs

03:07 at the heart of that government, making decisions

03:09 to benefit Scotland, making decisions

03:11 to transform this country.

03:13 Well, we'll be taking every single vote,

03:16 we'll be going to every single doorstep,

03:17 we'll be having those conversations,

03:19 we'll be looking to make sure that the message gets

03:21 across to the people of Scotland that if they want that change,

03:24 which they tell us they do, if they want to deliver that

03:26 change, kick out this Tory government,

03:28 that have Scottish Labour MPs at the heart of their communities,

03:30 but also at the heart of government,

03:32 making massive influence at the next UK Labour government,

03:35 then they have to vote for that change and vote Labour.

03:38 Well, in terms of where the Scottish Labour Party are

03:40 at the moment, we're a changed Labour Party,

03:42 and we want to have the opportunity

03:43 to change the country.

03:44 And we always go back to what we've heard in the past,

03:47 and if Scots will remember John Smith, the best Prime Minister

03:49 we never had, lived in Edinburgh, was a Scot,

03:52 and he said in his very last speech, in fact,

03:54 his very last public words that all he wanted

03:56 was the opportunity to serve.

03:57 That was what Care's message was today.

03:59 He wants the opportunity to serve.

04:00 He wants to be the Prime Minister of the whole of the United

04:03 Kingdom, and he wants Scottish Labour MPs in large numbers

04:06 in the heart of that government delivering for the country.

04:09 Well, people are very positive about our message for change.

04:12 There's not a voter that doesn't say they want change.

04:14 They're fed up of 14 years of Tory chaos.

04:16 They're fed up of 14 years of Tory division.

04:18 They're fed up of 17 years of SNP government

04:21 here in Scotland not delivering.

04:22 Everything has got worse.

04:23 And when they ask themselves when they go to the ballot box

04:26 and ready to put their cross down next to our party,

04:28 do they feel better off today than they did 14 years ago?

04:31 Do they feel they've got better public services

04:33 and things work better than they did 14 years ago?

04:35 And the answer is abjectly no.

04:37 And therefore, they want that change.

04:38 They want to turn the page on 14 years of failure,

04:41 and they want to turn the page to a decade of national union

04:43 with our Scottish Labour government.

04:45 Well, the SNP can do their own worrying.

04:46 All we are doing is taking that positive message

04:48 to the doorsteps.

04:49 We're not taking any vote for granted.

04:51 We are confident, but certainly not complacent.

04:53 And we're looking forward to the next six weeks

04:54 to take that positive message out

04:56 to every doorstep and every street and every community

04:57 right across the country.

04:58 How important is the Scottish vote for Labour?

05:01 Well, it's vitally important, because Keir said there

05:03 in his speech launching the campaign

05:05 that he wants to be the Prime Minister for the whole

05:07 of the United Kingdom.

05:09 He wants a large number of Scottish Labour MPs

05:11 not sitting on the opposition benches shouting and protesting,

05:14 but sitting at the heart of government

05:16 so they can deliver for the heart of their communities.

05:18 That's a really, really important message.

05:20 And I think he summed it up with the phrase,

05:22 he doesn't just want to send a message to Westminster.

05:25 He wants to send a government.

05:26 He wants to send a Labour government.

05:28 And he wants Scottish Labour MPs to be

05:29 at the heart of that government.

05:31 [MUSIC PLAYING]

05:34 (upbeat music)

05:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Recommended