LABOUR is being reborn in Scotland, Jeremy Corbyn has insisted, as the new UK party leader described defending the Union as a class politics issue and derided Scottish Nationalism, saying: “Flags don’t build houses.”
Mr Corbyn, who will travel north of the border on Thursday and again next week, stressed: “I’m going to be in Scotland a great deal as leader of the party.” He is expected to speak at the Scottish Labour conference in Perth next month.
The London MP made clear that if there were a second independence referendum before 2020, he would not be campaigning shoulder to shoulder with David Cameron.
“No, I won’t be standing alongside David Cameron; I’ll be standing alongside Kezia Dugdale and the Scottish Labour Party. The Scottish Labour Party will make its decision; Kezia has given her views, that if another referendum comes along, so be it, we will contest that referendum and decide what happens.”
He went on: “Above all, this is the growth and rebirth of Scottish Labour. Membership has gone up incredibly in Scotland in the past few weeks, during the leadership campaign and since the leadership campaign.
“Listen, if you’re poor in Glasgow and you’re poor in Birmingham, you’re poor. If you need a house in Glasgow and you need a house in London, you need a house. And so there is the class politics issue of it; that’s the message I’m taking when I’m campaigning in Scotland just as it is when I’m campaigning anywhere else.”
Mr Corbyn then declared: “Flags don’t build houses.”
The Labour leader suggested the SNP’s commitment to anti-austerity was superficial.
“Yes, the SNP have a headline in that they’re opposed to austerity, fine. The SNP are also privatising Calmac, also were behind the privatisation of Scot Rail, are also cutting college places, also privatising services, cutting local government funding.
“Yes, they have an austerity badge but where’s the economic strategy behind(it), which doesn’t either continue the austerity that’s happening now or if they go for fiscal devolution, it’s going to be even worse in Scotland because of the price of oil at the present time.”
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