KEIR Starmer has said he wants to win a significant number of seats in Scotland to ensure he has a "mandate" as he joins the campaign trail ahead of Thursday's by-election.
Voters in the constituency go to the polls next week to elect a successor to Margaret Ferrier after being suspended from SNP the following year after breaking Covid rules
In Rutherglen today, Starmer will declare the by-election to be of “monumental significance”. In an interview with the BBC ahead of campaiging, when asked if the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election was a must-win for his party, he said: "It is very important for us. There is no getting away from that."
He will say that recapturing the Rutherglen and Hamilton West seat, which was won by Ferrier for the SNP in 2019, will put the two “failing” governments at Holyrood and Westminster “on notice”.
Earlier this week, SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf declared that the buck stops with him if the party fails to hold on to the seat.
The constituency has switched between Labour and the SNP in the last four UK general elections, with Yousaf accepting his party faces “some very difficult circumstances in this seat, given Margaret Ferrier’s actions”.
Starmer, who will campaign with Labour candidate Michael Shanks and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, has stressed Labour is confident of winning.
He said: "Labour is now confident of winning a seat from the SNP at a by-election for the first time. And they think it could be the start of a resurgence in Scotland.
"For the Labour Party it matters that we win in Scotland to have the mandate - to have the authority - to take the whole of the UK forward."
He added: "I don't want to win a General Election without winning more significantly in Scotland."
The leader would not put a number on what "significant" looked like.
Campaigning today, Starmer will stress the importance of “respect for a day’s graft” – accusing SNP candidate Katy Loudon of hiring workers on zero hours contracts.
This, he will say, “runs totally counter to the asks of people across Rutherglen and Hamilton West for security in work, secure family finances, and fairness in exchange for hard work”.
He will state: “The fact is that there is another way – the Labour way. We were founded to seek power and use it to serve working people, and we will do it again.”
But Loudon said: “Keir Starmer has a brass neck turning up to Rutherglen and Hamilton West after he – and his pro-Brexit Labour Party – have shamefully stayed silent over cost of living support, and offered no meaningful policies to help people through this crisis.
“Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar have had ample opportunity to show they will stand up for people in this constituency by backing the SNP’s calls for an energy rebate and tax relief for mortgage holders – but they’ve refused to do so every time.
“Right now, all that is on offer from Labour is the Tory status quo. As an SNP MP, I will always stand up against Westminster austerity and work for the real cost of living support for people across this community.”
Meanwhile it is understood the SNP outsourced the distribution of one of its leaflets in the camapign to a third party business, with the party now said to be reviewing its distribution arrangements.
