THE SNP leader of Glasgow City Council has hit out at Labour's Keir Starmer in a row over cleansing.
During a visit to Glasgow, Starmer said it was in the midst of a “waste crisis”.
Now, council leader Susan Aitken has accused the Labour leader of “weaponising” the debate on waste management and having an ulterior motive in his criticism, in an interview with the Daily Record.
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She said: "I think Keir Starmer is on pretty shaky ground as a London MP, coming up and telling Glasgow that we're filthy.
"If you look at the local paper of any of the big Labour-run cities in England and people make exactly the same claims. Big cities have cleansing challenges.
"And all of us, I think, are grappling with how we run waste management services that are fit for purpose for a modern 24-hour city.
"We are also dealing with challenges coming out of Covid.
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"Keir Starmer wants to keep the money the GMB gives his party, and which they are threatening to take away – the GMB says jump and he says how high.
"But it is an attempt to weaponise that politically, which I think was pretty foolish on his part as it is easy enough to point the finger back.”
Starmer’s criticisms came ahead of the COP26 summit on climate change to be held in Glasgow later this year.
Following a visit with council cleansing staff, he said: “Glasgow's in a waste crisis after a failure of leadership from the SNP Council.
“Workers and communities have been left to live and work in unsafe conditions.
“The eyes of the world are on Glasgow – the Scottish Government must intervene to ensure the city is ready to host COP26.”
GMB general secretary Gary Smith (above) has claimed that Glasgow is "too filthy" to welcome world leaders such as US President Joe Biden.
Asked if she was embarrassed by the state of the city’s streets, Aitken said: "I'm not embarrassed, I'm more angered people are using that kind of language for political purposes.
"There's a real echo of the language that some far-right organisations have used about Govanhill for a long time. It's the same kind of words. It's a scapegoating and a targeting of Glasgow.
"I don't think it's fair and I don't think it's true. Glasgow, like every other big city, has challenges in keeping the city clean.
"In some of those challenges we need to target services and resources in such a way to address those. In others I think we are doing better than other cities."
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