Vote is a clear choice between hope and despair

ON THURSDAY, you will decide the future of our country.

The choice facing you at the ballot box could not be greater.

It is a choice between hope or despair, progress or retreat, growth or decline.

The Labour Party offer a positive vision for the entire United Kingdom. Our government will be for the many, not the few.

We will end failed Tory and SNP austerity and invest in our economy. Our unrelenting focus will be on creating more and better jobs, and protecting and improving our valued public services.

These are not meaningless soundbites. Our manifesto offers a fully costed program to make the UK a fairer, more progressive country.

By backing Labour on June 8, you can support a £10-an-hour living wage and a £250billion programme of investment, which will include at least £20billion of spending here in Scotland.

Over the past weeks, I have toured the country to see first-hand the differences these policies could make. And, by touring the country, I don’t mean looking down from a helicopter but actually talking to scores of people on the doorsteps.

I’ve spoken to the people who run our small businesses – a butcher in Stornoway, a florist in Edinburgh, a lobster farmer in East Lothian and book club workers in Dunfermline.

They are the lifeblood of our economy and a Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn will work tirelessly to ensure our local businesses can grow.

In contrast, the Tories offer failure and division.

During this election, Theresa May’s shambolic campaign has done nothing but expose her bankrupt ideas and backwards policies. U-turn has followed U-turn, disaster has followed disaster.

Then there’s the SNP, whose only desire is to drag us back to the arguments of the past.

Nicola Sturgeon might talk about progressive politics – but she offers nothing of the sort.

She even had the cheek to again argue for a 50p top rate of income tax across the UK, despite voting against it with the Tories here in Scotland.

The SNP cannot form the next government – and Labour have clearly and repeatedly said they will do no deal of any kind with the Nationalists.

A vote for the SNP is not a vote for anything positive or anything progressive – it is a vote to return us to the arguments of the past.

Scotland does not need or want another independence referendum but Nicola Sturgeon is determined to have one anyway.

Scotland needs a government focused on improving our public services, not how best to divide us again.

A vote for Labour on June 8 will send Nicola Sturgeon a message to drop her plans for a divisive second independence referendum and get on with the day job of fixing the mess she has made of schools and hospitals.

Only Labour can beat the SNP in seats across Scotland. And only Labour can kick Theresa May out of Downing Street.

On Thursday, vote for your local Labour candidate and help us to deliver a government for the many, not the few. THE One Love Manchester concert was an incredible event, both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same moment.

It showcased the very best of this great city, with dancing police officers and global superstars inside a cricket ground.

And what an inspirational woman Ariana Grande is to her millions of fans across the globe.