Scottish Labour to base manifesto pledges around opposition to independence

Kezia Dugdale will today launch a Scottish Labour manifesto based around the party’s opposition to independence.

Writing in his foreword to the manifesto, Jeremy Corbyn highlights rising child poverty in Scotland, with the number of people experiencing in-work poverty at its highest since devolution, along with continued health inequalities, as proof the SNP is focusing on constitutional issues rather than domestic policy.

The manifesto will assert Labour’s opposition to both independence and the SNP’s plans to hold a second vote.

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Corbyn said the party opposes independence “because it would inflict turbo-charged austerity on the Scottish people.

Although the election is for the House of Commons rather than the Scottish Parliament, the manifesto will also include commitments to bring forward member's bills to ban MSPs from holding paid second jobs, extending breakfast clubs into every primary school, banning fracking, improving access to sanitary products to tackle "period poverty" and scrapping the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.

Dugdale said: “Labour is the only party which knows it is the power of the whole UK working in partnership which benefits the many, not the few – that is at the root of our belief that together we’re stronger.

“That is why Labour opposes independence and a second divisive independence referendum. Independence is not the answer to dealing with Scotland’s flagging economy or our pressured public services.

“The SNP has one focus – independence. Labour will campaign tirelessly to ensure that the desire of the majority of Scots to remain part of the UK is respected.”

Corbyn writes: “We will stand firm in our opposition to a second referendum because we know that together we’re stronger and unity is still our strength.

"Historically, it has been the solidarity and common endeavour of our Labour and trade union movement that has transformed the lives of the many, not the few, in our great country.

"Just as it has always been the case, only our movement offers the hope and the contemporary solutions to society’s problems. Nationalism, in whatever form, does not."