Starmer sets his sights on Scotland – BBC News

Is your life better after 14 years of Conservative government?

That, in a nutshell, was the question Labour asked voters in this general election campaign.

You don’t need me to tell you that it worked, rather well.

Now the party is already talking about repeating the feat at the 2026 Scottish parliamentary elections by asking “is your life better after 19 years under the SNP?”

“This is part one,” said Sir Keir Starmer in Edinburgh on Sunday, adding: “part two comes in 2026.”

However, firing up his party for the Holyrood election campaign was not the main reason for the prime minister’s visit to Scotland so soon after taking office.

He insists that he wants to reset relations with governments around the UK, hence his decision to make an early dash through Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, as well as meeting English mayors, in his first few days in the job.

Sir Keir is attempting to style himself as the sensible leader of a grown-up government, a man whose watchwords are moderation and co-operation.

The intended contrast is not just with politicians on his right but also with those on his left, not least his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, who is back in parliament as an independent.

It is striking that Mr Corbyn secured 40% of the vote in 2017 when he lost to Theresa May while Sir Keir’s victory was built on a 33.7% share and the second lowest turnout since World War Two.

In other words the new prime minister’s well of support may be shallower than a majority of 174, just shy of Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide, suggests.

In fact, Scotland was the only part of the UK where Labour’s vote share rose sharply in this election, jumping by 17 percentage points as the party took 36 seats from the SNP.

Sir Keir retooled a familiar phrase in his address to new Scottish MPs and other supporters in a hotel looking out over Edinburgh Castle.

“We won because we campaigned as changed Labour,” he said, adding: “And we will govern as changed Labour.”

It was an obvious reference to Sir Tony, who entered Downing Street 27 years ago with the words: “We ran for office as New Labour, we will govern as New Labour. “

Starmer has inherited a stagnating economy, with low growth, low productivity and high inequality.

He is dealing with the fallout from Covid, the war in Ukraine and Conservative cuts to public spending in response to the financial crisis of 2007/8, known as austerity.

Winning control of the Scottish government from the SNP at Holyrood in 2026 could yet depend on Labour delivering the change it has promised voters as quickly as possible.

That will be a huge challenge when the party has pledged to stick to Conservative spending plans, a point the SNP leader and First Minister John Swinney made repeatedly during the election campaign.

Mr Swinney told broadcasters that, on eradicating child poverty, improving public services and tackling climate change, “there is common ground to be achieved by working collaboratively with the United Kingdom government.”