Mhairi Black: I am so disappointed with Jeremy Corbyn
Mhairi Black: Picture credit - Andrew Milligan PA Archive/PA Images
Mhairi Black has said she is "so disappointed" in Jeremy Corbyn's performance as Labour leader.
The SNP MP said she had initially been “heartened” to see him elected to the role in 2015, but said he had not lived up to her expectations because of Labour's continued support for nuclear weapons, as well as its policies on austerity or university tuition fees.
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"Jeremy Corbyn and I actively agree on quite a lot of things, which is why I hope what I’m about to say is taken with the sincerity with which it’s intended," she told the SNP conference in Glasgow.
"I am so disappointed with Jeremy Corbyn, so disappointed.
"He may be an opponent but I was heartened to see Jeremy Corbyn elected as leader of the Labour party because I thought ‘finally someone normal and sensible to work with in London’. But instead we’ve got more of the same London spin and nothing more than talking a good game.
"If you’re going to call for an end to austerity, don’t release a manifesto scrapping only £2 billion out of a total £9 billion’s worth of planned Tory cuts. Don’t tell the vulnerable that you’re fighting for them while you choose to keep 78 per cent of Tory cuts.
"Don’t tell young people you’ll scrap tuition fees but turn a blind eye to Labour who hike them up in Wales. Don’t tell us you’re different and then still sign up to waste billions of pounds on nuclear weapons."
Elsewhere in the speech, she hit out at Corbyn for being “condescending” to Scottish voters by claiming they would suffer “turbo-charged austerity” if they opted for independence.
"Don’t come to Scotland like so many before you and condescend us by claiming the Scottish government with 15 per cent of welfare powers can somehow undo Tory austerity when your party voted against devolving the real powers that matter.
"But most of all … don’t dare spread fear and utter drivel about an independent Scotland meaning we would suffer turbo austerity because while you’re doing that, our Scottish government is saddled with paying £453.8 million mitigating and protecting people from the very worst of the Tory policies that we never voted for in the first place, and they have a cheek to say it’s our fault.
"Why can I say that? Because I’m sick to the back teeth of British nationalists perpetuating the myth that Scotland could not afford to thrive in the world as an independent nation."
The Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP also said they SNP should not be frightened to discuss independence, despite opinion polls suggesting most Scots still back remaining part of the UK.
She said: "We have to keep believing in ourselves, we have to be bold in our arguments, to give people that vision for a better future.
"Let’s get out there and get independence."
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