SCOTTISH Labour leader Richard Leonard will today make an audacious pitch to Yes voters disheartened by the SNP’s Growth Commission.
Leonard, who celebrates his 200th day as leader on Wednesday, will use a speech to call for “unity” and set out his “progressive vision for Scotland’s economy”.
The Sustainable Growth Commission report has received a barrage of criticism from left-wing groups who supported independence during the 2014 referendum campaign.
In an open letter to the Yes movement yesterday, the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) called the report “suicidal” and warn the SNP that they are “driving many of those energised to vote Yes in 2014 by a vision of hope, into the arms of an apparently radical Labour Party.”
Leonard will tell party members in Glasgow that it is socialism and not nationalism that will unite the country: “We need to stop dividing people on the basis of nationality and start uniting people on the basis of class to bring about real change,” he will say. “Only Labour can offer this unifying vision. Austerity is a political, not economic choice, and it is the choice being taken by both Ruth Davidson and Nicola Sturgeon.
That’s the new dividing line which has opened up in Scottish politics; the SNP and the Tories on one side promoting another decade of austerity, and public expenditure cuts and Labour on the other promoting a decade of real and sustainable investment in public services and our economy.”
An SNP spokesman said: “It would be laughable if it were not so serious, that Scottish Labour would talk about unity while being so hopelessly consumed by chaos and conflicting positions on Brexit – one of the biggest threats facing Scotland.”
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