Miliband urges Scotland to vote ‘ no’ to leaving union
OPPOSITION LEADER SAYS A LABOUR GOVERNMENT WILL GRANT NEW POWERS, POLICIES
Britain’s opposition Labour party urged Scots yesterday to reject independence in a referendum this month, predicting it would soon bundle from office ruling Conservatives that many Scots feel reflect English interests, with little support north of the border.
Labour leader Ed Miliband will say that even British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives think they may lose a May 2015 British general election, citing comments made by Ruth Davidson, leader of the party in Scotland, who said on Tuesday “it isn’t looking likely” her party will be re- elected according to opinion polls.
Polls in recent days have given Labour a slender lead of 3 percentage points over the Conservatives.
Miliband’s strategy is to try to tap into a dislike of Cameron’s right- leaning party in Scotland, where it has just one of 59 UK parliamentary seats, by saying that his own left- leaning party will win the election and give Scotland new powers and policies obviating any need to leave the UK.
“With that election in just eight months time the change Scotland needs is on its way,” Miliband said on a visit there, according to advance extracts of his speech. “Electing a Labour government is theway to change Scotland.”
The choice for social justice is ‘ No’ not ‘ Yes’.” One argument pressed by supporters of independence is that British governments and parliaments do not reflect the sentiments of Scottish voters; rather they give expression to the Conservatives’ strength especially in southern England.
The Conservatives declined to comment on Miliband’s speech.
Miliband’s intervention reflects his party’s anxiety that it stands to lose around a sixth of its seats in the British parliament if Scotland breaks away from the United Kingdom in a September 18 referendum. That would be a serious blow to its future electoral prospects and make it harder for Labour, which currently has 40 of Scotland’s 59 parliamentary seats, to win elections in what would be left of the United Kingdom.
Its performance in Scotland has faltered in recent years with the pro- independence Scottish National Party breaking its stranglehold over Scottish politics and winning its first overall majority in Scotland’s devolved parliament in 2011. A survey on Tuesday made grim reading for Miliband.
It showed Labour supporters in Scotland had become more supportive of independence, helping narrow the anti- independence campaign’s lead.
The same poll put the anti- independence campaign on 48 per cent and the pro- independence side on 42 per cent with around 8 per cent still undecided on how to cast their vote.