SCOTTISH Labour leader Anas Sarwar put clear red water between the Scotland and Britain-wide parties today by saying he would stand with workers “from the picket line to Parliament.”

British Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer ordered shadow cabinet members not to attend picket lines last year and sacked frontbencher Sam Tarry for joining striking RMT members on one.

But Mr Sarwar said: “I expect my shadow cabinet, my MSPs and many MPs to join the front line, to join picket lines.”
 
He stressed the benefits electing Labour at British level would have for workers, including “sector-wide, government-backed negotiations between employers and unions to set minimum pay rates and basic conditions.” 
 
He also praised the plans for Great British Energy, which he claimed would mean “we don’t just nationalise the losses, we nationalise the profits of energy companies” — though Labour’s proposal does not involve nationalising existing companies.

“Tragically, for the nationalists the Tories are the gift that keeps on giving, fanning the flames of division, providing cover for the failures here in Scotland.

“If you scratch the surface of the SNP you will find something that is not that different from the Tories.

“They often talk left but act right,” he charged, noting that the Scotwind project “that should have set the tone for our just transition to net zero, is instead turned into a farce where we sell off the Scottish seabed on the cheap to private companies.”

And he slammed SNP hypocrisy on council funding, saying they had “taken a cut from Westminster, multiplied it by four and delivered it to local authorities.”