Trying to iron out the policy wrinkles, Jez?
THE ‘hypocrisy’ of the Tory Government was best seen in the appalling tragedy at Grenfell Tower, Jeremy Corbyn told a packed rally of supporters in Stornoway last night.
‘Theresa May could find money for the DUP, money for their pet projects – but not for those who needed her help,’ the Labour leader said.
He had earlier met workers at a Harris Tweed mill in the Lewis township of Shawbost, as he began a tour of target seats with a Western Isles visit.
Over the next four days Mr Corbyn will hit a succession of constituencies north of the Border, making speeches and hosting rallies, after Scottish Labour’s unexpected successes in June’s General Election.
Strategists believe up to 18 constituencies are winnable, with the party within 1,000 votes of the Nationalists in six and with the SNP defending majorities of less than 100 in two Glasgow divisions.
In the Western Isles the SNP saw Angus MacNeil’s majority slashed to just over 1,000 and with barely 40 per cent of the overall vote. Observers believe Scottish Government bungling over ferry services and crofter subsidies were factors, on top of revelations last year about the MP’s private life.
Mr Corbyn declared that in visiting the Western Isles he was highlighting his intention to ‘rural-proof’ the policies of a future Labour government.
He said: ‘Rural communities have been taken for granted for too long... Labour will invest in transport, broadband, public services, housing and environmental and coastal protections – vital for the economy and the rural way of life.’
He committed his administration to establishing a ‘National Investment Bank’ in Scotland to fund such development.
But Highland Tory MSP Donald Cameron said earlier this week that the tour was ‘a desperate attempt by the Labour Party to seek revival in constituencies like the Western Isles which they have abandoned and ignored for some time now’.
‘Labour offered the islands nothing in their recent manifesto,’ he added. ‘This is simply a case of Jeremy Corbyn looking to make up the numbers at the next general election.’
The Western Isles was a safe Labour seat from 1935 to 1970, and 1987 till Mr MacNeil’s 2005 defeat of Calum MacDonald.