REACTION was mixed following Anas Sarwar’s speech on the first day of Scottish Labour’s conference in Glasgow – at least according to members of the party's youth wing.
Lauren Harper, a youth representative on the Scottish Executive Committee and a member of the party's socialist wing, called the Scottish Labour leader's speech “absymal”.
“I just thought it was really poor and wishy-washy,” she added.
In a speech focused on the election, which is due to take place this year, Sarwar turned his fire on both the Tories and the SNP.
He described the two parties as the “very best of frenemies” which both have a “track record of failure in government”.
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But Harper said she “didn’t feel a lot of hope” after the speech.
“We’re meant to be the next party of government so this should be the conference that we set out hard ideas.
“We should be inspiring folk and as a young person siting in that room, incredibly politically engaged, I didn’t feel like I could take him at his word.”
She said that Sarwar “was right” to point fingers at the Tories and the SNP.
“But I’m also a socialist and I really don’t like the turn the party has taken,” she (below) added.
Speaking to another young Labour member outside the SEC Centre, he told The National that the speech was “okay” but that it wasn’t inspirational and was full of Labour “comms”.
George Taylor (above), who is running for chair of Scottish Young Labour, said meanwhile that the speech was “reassuring”.
“He covered all the major areas – around healthcare, welfare, the NHS, oil and gas – and the balance between them, making sure we have a worker-led transition, but also making we have that transition to renewables.”
Taylor also said it was “refreshing” to hear Sarwar call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Sarwar called for an “immediate ceasefire”, the release of hostages, access to Gaza for humanitarian aid and for the international community to “forge a path to an enduring peace and a two-state solution” in his speech.
On Saturday, Scottish Labour’s conference is expected to pass a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict.
The SNP will also be bringing the issue back to the Commons next week, with a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire.
“It was really refreshing to hear a senior Labour politician stand up and say unequivocally that. One, we need a ceasefire. Two, we need a Palestinian state – not, as he said, as a gift from a neighbour but as a right.”
He added that he hopes that both Scottish Labour MPs – Ian Murray and Michael Shanks – will back an immediate ceasefire in the vote at the Commons next week.
Both Harper and Taylor called on members to join them in leaving the party's annual conference on Saturday to call for an immediate ceasefire.
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