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