PM calls on Scots to vote for Tories in May polls
THERESA May has urged Scots to vote Conservative in May in the wake of her party’s historic victory in the Copeland by-election.
The Prime Minister travelled to Cumbria to hail her party’s win and claimed it showed Jeremy Corbyn’s party was out of touch with ordinary working people.
The May local elections in Scotland, England and Wales were now “vital” because Labour under Mr Corbyn’s left-wing ideology posed a “danger” to local services, she added.
Labour faces coming third behind the Tories in Scotland and losing most of its councils to the SNP, despite a recent membership rise to 21,000.
Earlier this week The Herald also revealed that Scottish Labour had suffered a collapse in political donations.
Mrs May had taken the unusual step of visiting Copeland a number of times during the election, a sign that Tory strategists believed they were in with a chance in the seat which had always previously voted Labour.
She told supporters that the Copeland result showed that hers was the party that was “listening and responding” to working people across Britain.
“Let us not be in any doubt about what these results represent,” she said.
“Copeland is a seat that Labour describe as their ‘core vote country’.
“It has returned Labour MPs without exception since the 1930s. It is a seat they thought they would win this time.
“A seat where they expected to increase their majority.
“And it is true to say that the result is a devastating blow for them, and proof that Labour are out of touch with the concerns of ordinary working people.
“That statement is true, but insufficient.
“Because Labour didn’t just lose Copeland.
“We – the Conservative Party – won Copeland.”
The Conservative leader also said that she would be “pounding the streets” alongside Tory candidates in the run up to May’s elections.
Allegations of hard-left “entryism” into Labour under Mr Corbyn’s leadership mean a Conservative victory was crucial, she said. “Labour’s local branches are changing,” said Mrs May.
“Labour’s councillors now dance to the tune of the militant unions and Momentum’s hard-left activists, facing threats of candidate deselection if they don’t.
“Last year, Labour’s deputy leader (Tom Watson) warned of entryism in Labour by the far-left.
“This year, even the Stalinists in Momentum are complaining about being infiltrated by the Trotskyites.
“But for those of us who remember what Militant did to Liverpool, it doesn’t matter what term you use – we can’t allow Labour to get a foothold back in local government and let them do for local communities what they did to our country.”
Last year Labour was beaten into third by the Tories at Holyrood for the first time since devolution.
Copeland, created in 1983, and its predecessor constituency Whitehaven have returned Labour MPs since 1935.