JEREMY Corbyn has pledged to invest in every part of Scotland if he gains power – from “Saltcoats to Selkirk and Stornoway”.
The Labour leader made the pledge as he travelled north for the second time since fellow left-winger Richard Leonard took control of the Scottish party.
It comes as divisions continue to show in his party over Brexit, with a row also erupting over racist and homophobic remarks made by a Scots MP.
READ MORE: Clarity demanded after third complaint against suspended SNP minister
Hugh Gaffney apologised last week for using the word “chinky” and joking that Robert Burns was not “bent” during a Burns supper – but critics have slammed party bosses for failing to suspend him.
Mr Corbyn will embark on a series of campaigns stops in Selkirk, Midlothian and North Ayrshire over the course of this week.
He said: “Our economy is broken. It is failing people right across Scotland, forcing 260,000 children into poverty, while more and more people in work are unable to make ends meet.
“These problems blight every community in Scotland: from Saltcoats to Selkirk and Stornoway we urgently need to transform a rigged system.
“The Tories serve the few, with tax cuts for the richest – and falling pay and cuts in public services for the rest of us.
“The SNP are too timid to take on the elite who are holding our people back. Scotland needs Labour governments in both Westminster and Holyrood with the strength and the will to work for the many, not the few.”
READ MORE: Clarity demanded after third complaint against suspended SNP minister
Mr Leonard said the impact of austerity “isn’t confined to the central belt of Scotland and neither will Labour’s response to it be”.
He added: “Labour’s plan to protect public services, boost wages and tackle inequality will benefit everyone.
“In a country where the richest one per cent own more personal wealth as the whole of the poorest 50 percent, something needs to change. Communities are being left behind. Only Labour has the plan and the political will to deliver the real change Scotland needs.”
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