Brown: Vote for Labour to be a true Scottish patriot
Ex-PM’s call as he fights to save election co-ordinator from losing seat to student
GORDON BROWN will today make an impassioned appeal to voters’ sense of patriotism as he attempts to fire up Scottish Labour’s failing election campaign.
The former Prime Minister will claim Labour plans to create 100,000 jobs are part of a “patriotic” vision for Scotland.
He will make an emotional plea for voters to back Labour’s programme at an event being staged to help save one of the party biggest figures, Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, from defeat on May 7.
Polling by the Tory peer Lord Ashcroft last week showed Mr Alexander trailing by 11 points in Paisley and Renfrewshire South to SNP candidate Mhairi Black, a 20-year-old student.
Yesterday, Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, provoked a furious war of words with David Cameron when he accused the Prime Minister and other world leaders of failing to support Libya, an error he said was partly to blame for the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean.
On the campaign trail in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon highlighted her party’s pledge to press for more support for carers across the UK.
Today, the First Minister will launch a “women’s pledge”, committing the SNP to promoting equality.
The latest polls of polls puts support for the SNP at 49 per cent, which would give the party 54 of Scotland’s 59 seats on a uniform swing. Labour is on 26 per cent and facing the prospect of its 40 Scots MPs being reduced to a rump of four.
Mr Brown’s visit to Elderslie, near Paisley, is a sign of Labour’s determination to save Mr Alexander, the party’s UK election co-ordinator, who would expect a major Cabinet job if Mr Miliband wins the keys to Downing Street.
In his speech to supporters, the former PM is expected to tell listeners: “When the issue is who will deliver change in a UK Government that benefits the Scottish people, I tell you from my experience as Prime Minister that a Scot such as Douglas Alexander would have more power to affect positive change during a 50-minute Cabinet meeting than any SNP MP could achieve in five years of protest outside of government.”
His appeal to Scots’ sense of patriotism has clear echoes of his contributions to the No campaign in last year’s election.
In a series of barnstorming speeches, credited by some with reversing the rise in support for a Yes vote in the final days before the vote, he argued remaining part of the UK was the most patriotic choice for the country.
Today he will highlight a long-term Labour plan to create 100,000 jobs in Scotland.
The strategy is based on boosting research and development in emerging high-tech industries, creating new “City Deals” giving greater economic powers to local councils, increasing housebuilding and guaranteeing jobs to long-term unemployed young people.
Mr Brown will argue the programme relies on UK-wide tax revenues and cross-Border collaboration.
He will say: “To make this happen we have to realise what it means to be a patriotic Scot in the modern world, when only 30 per cent of our trade is with the rest of the world outside the UK and when almost 70 per cent of our trade is with England.
“As patriotic Scots we do not resist the cooperation that benefits Scotland, as we draw on the UK-wide collaborative research network to create thousands of jobs.
“As patriotic Scots we do not diminish the value of our UK partnership when taxes from across the UK help fund the new City Deals for Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness.
“As patriotic Scots we do not abandon the principle of sharing resources throughout the UK when we are able to use proceeds of fair taxes – such as the extra £150 million to Scotland from the
bankers’ bonus tax – to create the jobs we need.”
“And as patriotic Scots we do not spend our time complaining about what we can’t do in Scotland but instead welcome the solidarity across the UK that is embodied in our UK-wide minimum wage, which prevents competition forcing a race to the bottom between the regions and nations of the UK.”
Mr Brown, an immensely popular figure with the Labour faithful, made his first major intervention in the election campaign on Thursday night.
Speaking at the church in Kirkcaldy where he announced he was standing down as an MP, he accused the Conservatives of “whipping up anti-Scottish feeling” by warning of a deal between the SNP and Labour.
Meanwhile SNP leader Ms Sturgeon yesterday campaigned on her party’s pledge to raise carers allowance, currently £62 per week, to the same level as job seekers allow- ance, which stands at £73.
The move would provide an extra £600 for about 100,000 unpaid carers in Scotland, the party says.
She will be joined by actress and campaigner Elaine C Smith today to launch the SNP’s women’s pledge.
Ms Sturgeon said: “No young girl should grow up in 2015 with the prospect of facing a glass ceiling that limits their ambitions. We all owe it to future generations to end gender inequality once and for all – which is why I am launching the SNP’s women’s pledge today.
“Westminster’s austerity cuts have hit women the hardest of all, with 85 per cent of cuts to social security and pensions affecting the incomes of women.
“SNP MPs at Westminster will stand up for gender equality at every turn. We will work for an end to austerity, for equal pay, more and better jobs, and to end the barriers that still block the aspirations of too many women in Scotland and across the UK.”