Rutherglen Town Hall, 139 Main St, Rutherglen, Glasgow G73 2J.J
STARMER AND SARWAR IN CONVERSATION ON SCOTLAND’S FUTURE
Keir Starmer MP and Anas Sarwar MSP hold an ‘In Conversation’ event to discuss what a Labour government would mean for the people of Scotland.
Mr Starmer and Mr Sarwar talk about their visions for Scotland before a Q&A.
Writing in the Scotsman newspaper ahead of a visit to the by-election where he will meet Scottish Labour candidate Michael Shanks and hold an ‘in conversation’ event with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, Mr Starmer has said that he will end the ‘disconnect’ between voters and politics and return the Labour Party to ‘the service of working people’.
Reflecting on the experiences of his own family, Mr Starmer said that a Labour government would support every family to get on in life.
Setting out how a Labour government would transform Scotland, Labour leader Keir Starmer has written: “Can you look around your community today and say, with the certainty you deserve, that the future will be better for your children?
“Working people I speak with have their doubts – and that’s putting it mildly. From Kirkcaldy to Glasgow, Inverness to Rutherglen, they all tell me how little trust they have in politics to change things for them. And, if I’m totally frank, this extends to my Labour Party. Countless people tell me they support Labour values. Yet they remain unconvinced that we – or, for that matter, Britain itself – still offer the way forward for Scotland or their community.
“And it means striking a new deal that will strengthen workers’ rights and finally make work pay. No more zero hour contracts, no more fire and rehire, and a real living wage for everyone. That is how a Labour Government in Westminster can secure growth that works for Scotland.
“Everything I have done since becoming Labour leader should be viewed as a direct response to this this disconnect. My political project is to return Labour to the service of working people and working class communities. There may have been times in the recent past where Labour was afraid to speak the language of class at all – but not my Labour Party. No, for me, smashing the “class ceiling” that holds working people back is our defining purpose.
"Because you cannot seriously take on inequality, or poverty, or the pernicious idea that circumstances – who you are, where you come from, who you know – can still count for more than enterprise or imagination, without talking about class. This is personal. I want every family to feel that Britain will support people like them to get on. My family felt able to take that on faith – so should yours.”
STARMER AND SARWAR IN CONVERSATION ON SCOTLAND’S FUTURE
Keir Starmer MP and Anas Sarwar MSP hold an ‘In Conversation’ event to discuss what a Labour government would mean for the people of Scotland.
Mr Starmer and Mr Sarwar talk about their visions for Scotland before a Q&A.
Writing in the Scotsman newspaper ahead of a visit to the by-election where he will meet Scottish Labour candidate Michael Shanks and hold an ‘in conversation’ event with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, Mr Starmer has said that he will end the ‘disconnect’ between voters and politics and return the Labour Party to ‘the service of working people’.
Reflecting on the experiences of his own family, Mr Starmer said that a Labour government would support every family to get on in life.
Setting out how a Labour government would transform Scotland, Labour leader Keir Starmer has written: “Can you look around your community today and say, with the certainty you deserve, that the future will be better for your children?
“Working people I speak with have their doubts – and that’s putting it mildly. From Kirkcaldy to Glasgow, Inverness to Rutherglen, they all tell me how little trust they have in politics to change things for them. And, if I’m totally frank, this extends to my Labour Party. Countless people tell me they support Labour values. Yet they remain unconvinced that we – or, for that matter, Britain itself – still offer the way forward for Scotland or their community.
“And it means striking a new deal that will strengthen workers’ rights and finally make work pay. No more zero hour contracts, no more fire and rehire, and a real living wage for everyone. That is how a Labour Government in Westminster can secure growth that works for Scotland.
“Everything I have done since becoming Labour leader should be viewed as a direct response to this this disconnect. My political project is to return Labour to the service of working people and working class communities. There may have been times in the recent past where Labour was afraid to speak the language of class at all – but not my Labour Party. No, for me, smashing the “class ceiling” that holds working people back is our defining purpose.
"Because you cannot seriously take on inequality, or poverty, or the pernicious idea that circumstances – who you are, where you come from, who you know – can still count for more than enterprise or imagination, without talking about class. This is personal. I want every family to feel that Britain will support people like them to get on. My family felt able to take that on faith – so should yours.”
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Good morning everybody and a very very warm welcome here to Rutherglen Town Hall in the
00:16 heart of the Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency. I'm honoured to be here as the
00:22 Scottish Labour candidate for this constituency. We can have a Labour government focused on
00:27 people's priorities here and at Jaws Park. A government that's promising a new deal for
00:32 workers, that will create thousands of new green jobs and a government that will shatter
00:38 the class ceiling so that opportunity is never driven by where you come from but by your
00:44 potential. Here's Starmer and leader of the Scottish Labour, Matt Starmer.
00:48 He deserves a strong voice in Parliament standing up for the communities here who deserve better
00:57 representation than they've had over recent years. Scotland has a proper voice and an
01:04 equal voice around a very very important table.
01:07 People across the country are going to want to and expect a UK Labour government to be
01:12 fighting poverty and reducing poverty across the country and you can get that, you can
01:16 get a cash down guarantee and that will be a priority for an incoming Labour government.
01:20 Hello, I'm Alistair Grant and I'm the political editor of The Scotsman and I'm here on the
01:24 main street in Rutherglen, just down the road from Rutherglen Town Hall where Keir Starmer,
01:29 the UK Labour leader, has been doing an event with Anna Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader,
01:34 talking about their vision for Scotland. Now they're obviously in Rutherglen because of
01:38 a key by-election that's expected in the coming months. Keir Starmer is also writing a piece
01:43 in today's Scotsman, you can read it on our website now or by picking up a copy of today's
01:48 paper where he was setting out his vision for Scotland, talking about some of his, what
01:53 he calls his national missions, things like growth, there's a huge emphasis on growing
01:57 the economy and the benefits that can bring to working people. There's a big emphasis
02:02 on clean energy, both in terms of jobs and in terms of the transition away from oil and
02:07 gas, away from fossil fuels. There's an emphasis on smashing the class ceiling as he called
02:12 it. There's also an emphasis on building an NHS fit for the future. Now the piece in today's
02:19 Scotland was really taking Labour's main policy announcements, its main messages and weaving
02:24 them into a narrative to try to appeal to Scottish voters. There was a message of optimism
02:30 and hope but there was also an underlying emphasis on fiscal responsibility and fiscal
02:37 restraint and sort of saying to people that they'll be inheriting, as they would put it,
02:42 a mess from the current Tory government and they're going to have to deal with that and
02:47 that means that they might not be able to do all the things that they want to do. So
02:53 Rutherglen obviously a key seat as I've said, I think it's one that Labour really needs
02:58 to win, it's the kind of seat that they should be winning in Scotland and I think Keir Starmer
03:04 today will be hoping his message appeals to voters here and if it doesn't I think that
03:09 will be a worrying sign for the party.
03:11 Thank you.
03:12 [Applause]
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