The Scottish Labour and SNP First Minister may face a dramatic UK general election. Scotland’s Labour won just one constituency in 2019, with the SNP, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats taking the lead. This year, the party thinks they could finish first as it has identified 28 Scottish seats it could win. Winning these seats would be a remarkable turnaround for Labour and can be a determining factor in whether Labour wins power at Westminster.
A lot of traditional Labour voters backed independence which led to Labour drastically failing to have only one Scottish seat compared to the SNP’s 56 MPs. Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Scottish Labour Leader Anas Sarwar admits the party became complacent. She further stated that it “definitely made it undeniable that something in Scotland had shifted and it had shifted dramatically.” With the Rutherglen by-election in October, Labour’s hopes of a revival improved. The party won significantly, leading senior figures to become more confident.
Labour aims to allocate significant funding to Glasgow, Lanarkshire, various central belt towns and parts of Edinburgh, the Western Isles and more. Labour thinks that 28 out of Scotland’s 57 seats are in play. Although supporting independence hasn’t fallen, the SNP is not able to deliver a second referendum anytime soon without Westminster’s go-ahead. Labour believes a change election would be more attractive for Scottish voters who want to see change.
This election is more than Scotland; it’s about running the UK after the general election. The Labour party, however, needs a colossal record swing to win a majority in parliament. Winning more Scottish seats makes winning power generally more likely. If the election doesn’t give a majority to any party, SNP MPs could vote for Labour’s policy program to retain their power. Scotland’s First Minister Mr Yousaf avoided making a commitment in his interview but claimed that the SNP would want concessions to boost a Labour government. Mhairi Black, a prominent figure in the SNP, insists that it’s all to play for despite the party’s facing challenges
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