00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Friday. I'm Alan Young, I'm Deputy
00:10Editor of the Scotsman. I'm joined today by our Deputy Political Editor, David Ball, who
00:15is in Greenock, I believe, and has just been listening to Keir Starmer on his visit to
00:22Scotland. Hi David, what did Keir have to say?
00:26Well yeah, so he was setting out his six pledges that he's going to get as priorities for Scotland.
00:33They include cutting NHS waiting times, which is maybe a bit more difficult than it sounds
00:39given that health's devolved, boosting the economy and jobs. We've also heard a bit more
00:44detail about those GBE energy plans, that obviously Scotland's going to play quite a
00:49central role, and giving Scotland a bigger voice, as it were, through the Scotland Office,
00:54helping to improve those export markets that Salmon and Whiskey have enjoyed, and trying
00:59to help other businesses match that sort of success. He was joined up here by Angela Rayner
01:07and Ed Miliband and Ian Murray, so there was kind of a team effort. Keir Starmer's speech
01:13was very similar to what he said last week, to be perfectly honest. It's just about ensuring
01:18that people who haven't voted Labour before, maybe independent supporters, are more turned
01:23on by Labour, and maybe the change that they're offering can kind of appeal to some of those
01:28independent supporters who want change, but obviously want it through a different way,
01:32but might be persuaded to back him in the general election.
01:37And as you touched on, he was here last week. I know we're in our election campaign, but
01:44two visits in seven days is pretty unprecedented, and it's probably an indication of how seriously
01:50they're treating Scotland.
01:52Yeah, absolutely. Two visits, one to Glasgow, one to Inverclyde, so very much central belt
01:58territory that Labour will be targeting. There's a lot of talk about the red wall in the north
02:03of England, those Brexit seats that the Tories snatched from Labour, but obviously this one
02:09fell first. This has been a disaster for Labour for many years, since the independence debate
02:14really circulated. So they need to win here if they're going to make a big difference
02:20across the UK. They're obviously putting it as central to that campaign, even in the
02:23early days, and I'm sure we'll see more of him again as the campaign continues.
02:28Indeed. Maybe I'll just touch on the exclusive poll in the Scotsman today. You have the story
02:35running online and in today's paper. Good news for Keir Starmer, but maybe also some
02:44green shoots for John Swinney.
02:46Yeah, I mean, Labour are still, it's a very good poll for them. They're still on 37% compared
02:53to 33% for the SNP. That's the key battle we're really looking for, and that transcribes
02:59to Labour winning 28 seats and the SNP 18. But if you look at Holyrood voting, obviously
03:06we're more interested in the general election at the moment, given we're sort of, it's very
03:10fast approaching. The polling suggests that the SNP sort of popularity is growing a little
03:15bit in that poll, which could give them a bit of hope that maybe they could turn things
03:21around or maybe close that gap a little bit of Labour in the Westminster polling. John
03:26Swinney appears to have kind of steadied the sort of decline that we were seeing under
03:30Humza Yousaf against Labour. So there'll be a fair few things for the SNP to cling onto
03:37as this could kind of turn in our favour a little bit. But still, that poll is a very
03:42convincing one for Labour to secure victory in Scotland at the election.
03:46Thanks very much, David. I'll let you get on. We've got a very busy day. We'll have
03:52all the very latest at scotsman.com throughout the day. If you can, please do subscribe,
03:57then you'll be able to read and watch absolutely everything we do. And if you're out and about
04:01today, do pick up a paper as ever from me and from David. Bye for now.
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