A FORMER Labour minister who served in Jim Callaghan’s government is campaigning for the SNP ahead of Thursday’s General Election.
Les Huckfield, who was the under-secretary of state for industry in the late 70s, has told The National that “independence must now become the priority”.
The former MP has been leafleting for John Nicolson, the SNP candidate in Ochil and South Perthshire, who is fighting to oust former Tory incumbent Luke Graham.
Writing in The National today Huckfield said he wanted Nicolson to win because of “the Tory threat to the NHS and securing Brexit on any terms and doing trade deals with the US”.
READ MORE: Scotland needs to vote SNP, argues ex-Labour minister Les Huckfield
“This week I’m leafleting for John Nicolson against Tory Luke Graham in Ochil and South Perthshire,” he explained.
“Graham is a devoted follower of Liz Truss MP, International Trade Secretary, founder of the Tory Free Enterprise Group and one of the authors of ‘Britannia Unchained.
“All sounds familiar doesn’t it, except that he won’t be tweeting that in Alloa?”
Huckfield praised the Scottish Government for its attempts to mitigate austerity and policies such as free university tuition and free prescriptions.
“But what this Tory cohort can’t conceal is what it means to live in Scotland with an SNP government. Despite limited funds, a Scottish government has done as much as possible to protect us from 10 years of Cameron/Osborne, May/Hammond and now Johnson/Javid deliberate Tory austerity, especially NHS cuts, the Bedroom Tax and Universal Credit.
“In contrast, anyone with a family member in England with a reoccurring health problem which means brief spells in hospital will tell you they don’t know in which hospital they may have to spend the night.
“No wonder too that friends in England tell me that they’ll have to move to Scotland because they fear the dismantling of the NHS if the Tories get an overall majority on Thursday. No wonder there are families with elderly relatives already moving to Scotland to benefit from the Personal Care Allowance. It’s the same with higher education. None of my students at GCU have to pay £9000 in fees like their English counterparts, introduced by a Tory/LibDem coalition in 2010.”
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