Jeremy Corbyn to target SNP seats in summer campaign drive
2 min read
Jeremy Corbyn is to campaign in a host of SNP-held seats in a bid to win back traditional Labour supporters north of the border.
The party has set a target of reclaiming 18 seats in Scotland as part of its bid to win the 64 it needs across the UK to win the next election.
The five-day August tour will seek to capitalise on Scottish Labour's mini-revival last month, when it defied the odds to win a total of seven seats.
Mr Corbyn has vowed to speak to “thousands of voters” in the party’s once strong base, two years after traditional heartlands fell to the Nationalists following the Scottish independence referendum.
The fresh drive will seek to boost support in areas including Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Inverclyde – former Labour heartlands where swings of less than 1% are needed to seize a clutch of seats from the SNP.
The Labour leader said his party would ensure Scotland has the “resources it needs” to fund public services, in the face of Conservative and SNP-imposed austerity.
“Labour remains on an election footing as a government-in-waiting, ready to end failed austerity and ensure that Scotland has the resources it needs to provide the public services its people deserve,” he said.
Mr Corbyn said he would campaign on the party’s pre-election commitments, including the introduction of a £10-an-hour minimum wage, a ban on zero hour contracts, a “jobs first” Brexit, and taxing big corporations and wealthy individuals.
He added: “Unlike the SNP and the Tories, Labour will transform our economy through investment, insisting that the true wealth creators - that means all of us - benefit from it.
“The only way to remove the Conservatives from Downing Street, and have a government that works for the many, not the few, is to back Labour in Scotland.”
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said: “After more than a decade in power in Scotland, the SNP is presiding over a struggling economy, while schools have thousands of fewer teachers, and NHS workers are under-valued and over-stretched.
“And the SNP can’t remove the Tories from office – only Labour can do that."
She added: “I look forward to joining Jeremy in August as we take our message to the people of Scotland.”
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