Scotland is being “held back” by an SNP Government that is failing ordinary Scots, Anas Sarwar will tell the UK Labour party conference today.
The Scottish Labour leader will insist that Scotland is a country of “enormous potential and is brimming with talent” but is being let down by a Nationalist administration that is out of ideas after 17 years in power.
The Glasgow MSP will use a speech in Liverpool to claim “time up for the SNP” as it offers nothing but “internal division and outward incompetence”.
Winning back control at Holyrood is a top priority for Keir Starmer’s Labour, with the party having not won a Scottish Parliament election since 2003.
Sarwar is expected to say: “It is clear that Scotland is crying out for change after years of SNP and Tory failure. We might have got rid of one incompetent government at the general election, but in Scotland another incompetent government remains in power.
“Scotland is a country of enormous potential and is brimming with talent. But we are still held back by an SNP government that is failing Scots on a daily basis and that has nothing but decline and division to offer the people.”
Sarwar will also remind conference delegates that nearly one in six Scots are on an NHS waiting list, that the education attainment gap remains and that economic growth has flatlined.
He will also say that drug and alcohol deaths remain “stubbornly high” and that rough sleeping persists while homelessness is at record levels.
The Scottish Labour leader will tell delegates: “When Scotland most needs change, fresh leadership and new ideas – all the SNP offers is internal division and outward incompetence.
“The same tired people in power peddling the same old excuses. Frankly, it’s time up for the SNP. They are a party that has lost their vision and lost their way.”
SNP Depute Leader Keith Brown said the Scottish Labour leader “must think people in Scotland are zipped up the back” if he believes they will vote for his party, which he said is inflicting “billions of pounds of cuts on Scotland whilst lining their own pockets with donations and freebies”.
He added: “The only person Scottish Labour is delivering for is Keir Starmer – meanwhile Labour is cutting winter fuel payments for over 800,000 pensioners, pushing over 87,000 children into poverty by failing to scrap the two child limit and hammering Scotland’s public services by continuing Westminster austerity cuts.
“It’s no wonder the Labour Party is collapsing in the polls as voters can see they are simply picking up where the Tories left off.
“The SNP will continue to demonstrate why we are the only party who can be trusted to deliver a better future for Scotland by using the limited powers of devolution to improve the lives of people across Scotland and deliver of their priorities.”
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, clickhere