Sir Keir Starmer attends the launch of Scottish Labor's general election campaign in Glasgow. Photo: Ewen Butman, Anadolu
Scotland will decide whether Labor wins the general election, Sir Keir Starmer said, adding that his party's comeback north of the border was “personal”.
Sir Keir said he needed to win in Scotland. with Labor only winning one seat in the 2019 general election so his party would want to win the whole of the UK on July 4.
But he said “that's personal too” as he wanted to ensure he would be “prime -Minister for the Whole of the United Kingdom” with a “strong” group of Scottish Labor MPs.
Although he said “numbers are important”, after Labour's defeat at the last election he felt a “deep” and “fundamental” need for his government to include Scotland.
In a speech at the launch of the Scottish Labor campaign in Glasgow , he said there would be “no change without Scotland” and said voters north of the border were facing stark choices.
Sir Keir said the Scottish National Party's “highest aim” was for voters to elect a Nationalist MP who would “send a message” to Westminster by protesting from the Opposition benches.
But instead he called on Scots to “send signal” to Westminster. government, Labor government”, supporting his party. A number of polls have suggested that Labor is set to make an extraordinary comeback north of the border at the expense of the Scottish National Party.
One poll this week suggested the Scottish National Party could be left with just 11 MPs after the election. a sharp drop from the 48 they won in 2019.
The Labor Party was predicted to grow from the one seat it won at the last election to 35, greatly boosting Sir Keir's hopes of becoming prime minister. The Tories will retain their six seats in Scotland despite a decline in the UK vote.
A total of 57 seats will be up for grabs in Scotland after the border changes. Despite Labor's huge lead over the Tories in the UK polls, Sir Keir says they can play a decisive role in his party's victory.
When asked why he wants Scotland to become prime minister, the leader of the Labor Party responded to reporters. : “Yes, it’s about the numbers. I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
“We lost badly in 2019, we need to win every seat we can win across the UK and every seat we are capable of winning here in Scotland because numbers really do matter.
“But this is also personal. If I have the honor of becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, I want to be Prime Minister of Great Britain for the whole of the United Kingdom, including Scotland.
“Beyond the numbers, having a strong representation of the Scottish Labor Party on the government benches is important to me in terms of how I want to govern, which is for Scotland and with Scotland.
“Yes, the numbers are important, but there are something very deep in my view of politics and also the type of government we want to form.”
< p>Speaking the day after Rishi Sunak visited the Highlands, he added: “Whatever people tell me about maths and opinions, polls etc etc, there is something fundamental to me about the importance of Scotland. Without Scotland there can be no change.”
The Labor leader also ruled out any deal with the SNP before or after the election “under any circumstances.”
He said: “It's not easy math question. This is because there is no way a new Labor government can work with an SNP whose sole purpose is to break up the United Kingdom.”
Alison Thewliss, SNP MP for Glasgow Central, said: “In fact, Sir Keir Starmer's Labor Party is not prioritizing any change at all and offering the people of Scotland nothing but more of the same.”
” We have a rotten Tory government that deserves to be removed from office, but it is clear that Sir Keir Starmer has no vision beyond the status quo.”
Claire Coutinho, the energy security secretary, said: “Sir Keir Starmer spoke in Scotland and welcomed his concession to Angela Rayner and 70 new French-style trade union rules that ban flexible working, but said nothing about the 93,000 jobs in Scotland that will be lost as a result of Labour's reckless promise to close our oil and gas sector.”
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