Jeremy Corbyn blasts 'timid' SNP ahead of Scotland visit
2 min read
Jeremy Corbyn will travel to Scotland this week for a series of campaign stops with Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard.
Ahead of the tour the Labour leader will turn his fire on the SNP, saying they are "too timid" to take on the interests of the rich and powerful.
Mr Corbyn has a long way to go if his party is to regain its former supremacy north of the border, with Ruth Davidson's resurgent Conservatives now the second largest Scottish party in both Westminster and Holyrood.
Although Labour gained six seats at last year's general election, they did so almost entirely because of a sharp fall in the SNP vote. In total the party won just 10,000 more votes in the whole of Scotland.
In a statement ahead of his visit, Mr Corbyn said only Labour could deliver the economic transformation Scots need.
“Our economy is broken. It is failing people right across Scotland, forcing 260,000 children into poverty, while more and more people in work are unable to make ends meet," he said.
"These problems blight every community in Scotland: from Saltcoats to Selkirk and Stornoway we urgently need to transform a rigged system.
“The Tories serve the few, with tax cuts for the richest - and falling pay and cuts in public services for the rest of us. The SNP are too timid to take on the elite who are holding our people back. Scotland needs Labour governments in both Westminster and Holyrood with the strength and the will to work for the many, not the few.”
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe