This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
“RADICAL” policies not personality politics will reconnect Labour with the Scottish people, party leadership candidate Neil Findlay said yesterday.
Mr Findlay was invited to pin the blame for polls predicting a Labour wipeout in Scotland on Ed Miliband’s public image during an interview on BBC radio.
Two separate polls released on Thursday showed Labour support plummeting from around 40 to 20 per cent — figures that would return as few as four MPs at the general election.
Former brickie Mr Findlay admitted Labour is in a “very worrying situation” but he insisted it “requires a political response.”
He said: “If you think that the issues that came out during the referendum and the problems Labour has are about personalities, then you don’t understand the political culture in Scotland.
“People were raising throughout the referendum the issue of social justice and social justice-related issues like employment and the living wage.
“These are the things that will get us back connected with the voters and Labour has to have an offer that is radical and connects with people.”
The Lothian MSP was speaking after Mr Miliband addressed Scottish Labour supporters at the party’s gala dinner in Glasgow.
Mr Miliband said his party’s troops will “fight every hour and every day to deliver the changes the working people of Scotland need to improve their lives.”
Pro-independence activists protested outside the £200-a-head event, which they said showed Labour was out of touch with Scotland.
Police were called into action when four nationalists broke into the building and tried to disrupt the dinner.
Hitting back inside, Mr Miliband laid out Labour policies that he said the “SNP has not done and will never do,” including reintroducing a higher rate of tax, taxing bankers’ bonuses and raising the minimum wage.
But he was warned yesterday by YouGov pollster Peter Kellner that Labour can no longer rely on the support of “red Nats” who switch from the SNP to Labour for general elections.
Blairite MP Jim Murphy and party insider Sarah Boyack are also challenging for the Scottish Labour leadership.
