Leader says Scotland is key to a Labour government

Scotland will be the key to delivering a Labour government at Westminster in the next general election, Richard Leonard will say.

The new Scottish Labour leader is to travel to London to address the party’s Parliamentary Labour Party for the first time since his election last month.

Left winger Mr Leonard is the fourth person to hold the post in the last three years after defeating rival candidate Anas Sarwar following the shock resignation of Kezia Dugdale in August.

Polls carried out since his election have suggested that support for Scottish Labour has grown, putting the party back in second place behind the SNP.

Mr Leonard will hold a series of meetings at Westminster before addressing Labour MPs this evening, telling them he can make the party a genuine alternative to the SNP and Tories in Scotland.

Speaking ahead of the visit, he said: “Scotland desperately needs a Labour government to deliver the radical change we need to see – and it will be Scotland that delivers a Labour government for the whole UK at the next general election.

“Scotland has grown sick after seven years of Tory austerity and 10 years of SNP mediocrity. That is why people are coming back to Labour.

“We are winning a new generation of young people.”