JEREMY Corbyn has pledged to “take Scotland back” for Labour.
Speaking at the Scots Night reception at Labour’s conference in Brighton, the Labour leader pledged that he would make a visit to Scotland once a month as he continued in campaign mode.
Praising the “magnificent seven,” the MPs who won seats in Scotland at the June poll, Mr Corbyn also hailed the “strength and wisdom” of Lesley Laird, the Shadow Scottish Secretary.
He thanked Kezia Dugdale for her work as Scottish Labour leader and Alex Rowley for acting as interim leader, making clear that he would work alongside whoever was elected to be her replacement.
Stressing how there were fundamental issues to challenge the Tories and SNP on, the party leader highlighted how there were too many children in poverty, too many people whose housing needs were not properly met and too many students who had lost college places.
“Why? Because an SNP Government in Scotland asked for and got the taxation powers they have and basically have refused to use them to challenge Tory austerity imposed from Westminster and it is time we called the SNP out on it. They effectively are bringing austerity to Scotland.”
Mr Corbyn repeated the assertion made during his recent five-day campaigning trip north of the border that to win a UK general election Labour had to win more seats back in Scotland.
Insisting that the socialist message was putting investment before austerity, he said Labour would challenge the Tories “every inch of the way,” declaring to cheers: “You know what, we are going to force them into an election before too long and in that election we are going to win a Labour government for the whole of the UK.”
He added to applause that he was determined that the great socialist tradition would come to the force and “we will take Scotland back for Labour”.
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