Starmer vows to ‘preserve and renew our precious Union’
SIR Keir Starmer will tomorrow deliver a passionate defence of the Union – in a hardening of Labour’s opposition to independence.
He will pledge ‘to preserve and renew the United Kingdom’ and talk up the ‘amazing things we’ve achieved together’.
His predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, was frequently criticised for dithering on the possibility of a second referendum and failing to talk about the achievements of the UK.
Nicola Sturgeon hopes to hold another independence vote early in the next parliament, with some Nationalists demanding one by the end of next year.
But Sir Keir is expected to argue that the richness of the UK should be measured not only in power or prosperity, but by our shared ‘history, values and our identity’. He will add: ‘We’re interconnected and we’re interdependent. That’s not just a precious inheritance or a description of the past, it’s what we are, what I want for our children.
‘I don’t believe in putting up borders across any part of our United Kingdom, in dividing people, communities and families who have stood together for so long.
‘We achieve more together than alone. All four nations working together to build a more open, more optimistic and outward-looking country. A United Kingdom that’s a force for social justice and a moral force for good in the world.’
He will say he wants ‘devolution and social justice to be the hallmarks of the next Labour government’, noting ‘there’s a yearning across the UK for politics and power to be closer to people’.
But Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said: ‘This is the same old, tired argument Labour have made before. They are offering nothing to challenge the SNP. Scottish Labour won’t work with Unionist parties to stop the Nationalists.’
Kirsten Oswald, the SNP’s deputy leader at Westminster, said: ‘The Westminster system is broken and no amount of constitutional tinkering of the kind proposed by Labour will protect Scotland from Brexit or the Tory power grab being imposed on us against our will.’