SIR Keir Starmer says Westminster is “incredibly frustrating” with short-termism and gesture politics “baked in” to how it works – while arguing Scotland should stay in the Union.
In a lengthy article published ahead of a visit to Rutherglen and Hamilton West, where a by-election will take place, the Labour leader also admitted people in Scotland remain unconvinced that his party is offering a way ahead.
He tried to distance Labour from the Tories by saying it will focus “on the long-term needs of working people”.
But he also said he would maintain a “tight grip of the nation’s finances” while addressing poverty, suggesting he will not back down on keeping unpopular Tory benefit policies.
Starmer has faced a huge backlash over a decision not to scrap the unpopular two-child benefit cap and the bedroom tax, blaming it on uncertainty over the UK economy.
In the 2700 word article for The Scotsman, Starmer wrote that “politics is the only way to make a difference”.
He said: “I know many people are cynical about that and they do have a point. Working within it, I find Westminster incredibly frustrating.
“The pervasive short-termism, the walking around problems, the gesture politics impulse that I found in the Labour Party I inherited – that all seems baked in to how it works. There are many good MPs there, but as a system it seems to push against that spirit of public service.
“Nonetheless, I do still believe politics is how we fix problems, how we change things, how we build a better future.”
He later added: “But I have moved my party away from the game of gesture politics to focus on the long-term needs of working people. And with our national missions that is exactly what I will do with Westminster.”
Starmer wrote that working people “have their doubts” that future will be better for their children, adding “that’s putting it mildly”.
He said: “From Kirkcaldy to Glasgow, Inverness to Rutherglen, they all tell me how little trust they have in politics to change things for them. And, if I’m totally frank, this extends to my Labour Party.
“Countless people tell me they support Labour values. Yet they remain unconvinced that we – or, for that matter, Britain itself – still offer the way forward for Scotland or their community.”
He said a Labour Government will address the “root causes of poverty”, but said this will be done in way that also maintains a “tight grip on the nation’s finances”.
“Fiscal responsibility and supporting the most vulnerable are not conflicting priorities – they go hand in hand,” he added.
The Labour leader said his belief in the Union is “straightforward” and that he “passionately believes” challenges are better tackled as “four great nations working together for a common good”.
But he also pointed out the damage done to Scotland during the Thatcher years.
He wrote: “Then there are the scars of the Scotland born of 1979 onwards, when the Labour Party was turfed out of power and the Tories got to manage a period of enormous upheaval. It’s a Scotland where the prosperity oil and gas could have brought was squandered.
“Where the government saw working-class solidarity, across Britain, as a threat. And where an economic transition away from central Scotland’s main industries was – as it was in Sheffield and Sunderland, Nottinghamshire and Neath – needlessly cruel.”
Speaking to BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, the party’s deputy leader, Keith Brown, called Labour’s campaign an “unfolding disaster”.
He said: “What they’re offering is the same as the Tories. It’s austerity, it’s Brexit, it’s the biggest fall in living standards in a generation.
“What we would be offering is a chance for Scotland to say: no this has to stop.”
