IT is “no surprise” Keir Starmer is set to talk about “squandering Scotland’s resources” at the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow, the SNP have blasted.
The UK Labour leader is set to address delegates on Sunday at the SEC, where he will admit that the profits from North Sea oil and gas could have been used to support prosperity in Scotland.
The SNP said that due to his “fondness” for Margaret Thatcher, they were not surprised by Starmer's comments.
It comes after he faced fierce criticism for praising the former Tory prime minister as having brought “meaningful change” to Britain, applauding Thatcher for “setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism”.
But, the UK Labour leader looks set to distance himself from those comments during his speech in Scotland and will instead talk about the “scars” imposed north of the Border from 1979 onwards – the year Thatcher became prime minister.
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Starmer is set to praise the “value of politics written into the walls of every community” in Scotland and the wider UK, adding: “But it’s also there in the scars of the Scotland born of 1979 onwards.
“When the Labour Party was turfed out of power – in part, it has to be said, by the SNP – and the Tories got to manage a period of enormous upheaval instead.
“A Scotland where the prosperity oil and gas could have brought was squandered.
“Where the government saw working-class security, not as a source of hope and dynamism, but as a threat, and where the economic transition away from central Scotland’s main industries was, as it was across Britain, chaotic, unstable and needlessly cruel.”
He is also set to say there will be “difficult decisions” that will come “thick and fast”.
“My Labour party is ready to make those difficult decisions. My Labour party is ready to deliver security for decades,” he will add.
SNP MP Alison Thewliss said the comments showed Starmer does not have Scotland’s best interests at heart.
"Whether it's Sir Keir Starmer's refusal to end Tory austerity, his silence on the damage of Brexit or his party's failure to back a ceasefire to end the suffering in Gaza, Labour are completely out of touch with Scotland's values,” she said.
"Labour have said they will end the cap on bankers' bonuses and keep the hated two-child cap – even Anas Sarwar has now acknowledged Scotland needs protecting from Sir Keir Starmer.
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"Sir Keir Starmer has already made clear his fondness for Margaret Thatcher so it's of no surprise he talks about squandering Scotland's resources just days after he dumped his £28 billion green renewable investment pledge – putting thousands of Scottish jobs at risk.”
We told how the Labour leader rowed back on the green energy pledge, drastically scaling back promises of future commitment to just under £24bn over the five-year parliamentary term instead of £28bn annually.
Starmer is also set to make a direct appeal to Scottish voters to vote for Labour at the next General Election.
“If you do want that difference for Scotland, if this is to be more than words, and if we are to show you what Britain – Labour Britain – can do for your community, then we do need the chance to serve,” he will say.
“And – maybe for the first time in a long while – that chance, that change, that difference, is on the ballot at the General Election.
“The power of the vote, and the power to build a new Scotland, is in your hands.”
Thewliss added: "At the upcoming General Election, Labour don't need Scotland to win but Scotland needs SNP MPs at Westminster to stand up for Scotland’s interests.
“Only the SNP can make Scotland Tory-free and offer a better future for our nation with independence."
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Scottish Greens MSP Mark Ruskell said: “Keir Starmer is right that we’re in a period of great transition, moving irreversibly away from economies of oil and gas and towards a new green industrial revolution.
“That’s why people are so consistently disappointed by Labour’s conservative approach. Scotland only has one chance to lead the way into the post-fossil fuel era, and instead we see Starmer abandon green pledge after green pledge, choosing to double down on climate-wrecking Tory policies that will see the world leave us behind.
“The planet is hurtling towards climate breakdown. Scotland doesn’t have time for wishy-washy speeches, we need real action. And that’s something Labour simply aren’t offering.”
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