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Scottish Labour Conference 2024: Sarwar speech key highlights

The 2024 Scottish Labour party conference began today in Glasgow, hot on the heels of Labour’s by-election successes south of the border.

Watch back and recap on highlights from Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s speech below in our live-blog.

 

3.20pm: Ending on a flourish

3.15pm: Plan to unlock housebuilding and energy projects

 

3.07pm: ‘We will not turn off the taps’ on oil and gas

“We will support new technology, attract global investment, and deliver 50,000 high-skilled, well-paid jobs. All backed by a publicly-owned energy company, GB Energy, which will be headquartered right here in Scotland,” says Sarwar.
He also highlights Labour’s windfall tax plan for energy giants, but adds: “Oil and gas will play a role in the energy mix for decades to come – we will not turn off the taps – but we will also accelerate the transition to net zero.”

3.04pm: ‘Pro-growth, pro-business, pro-worker’

Sarwar says: “Across Scotland today there are 410,000 adults in in-work poverty. More than 109,000 people in Scotland are on a zero-hours contract. So we must finally bring the world of work into the 21st century – strengthening workers’ rights, and strengthening our economy too.
“That means ending the scandal of fire and rehire, extending employment rights from day one, delivering a real living wage, and banning exploitative zero-hour contracts once and for all.
“Labour will always be the best vehicle for delivering social change, but we recognise that social change is only possible with a strong growing economy. That’s why we are an unashamedly pro-growth, pro-business, pro-worker party.

2.58pm: ‘I don’t care how you voted in the past’

“I say directly to people – I don’t care how you voted in the past. I don’t care how you voted in either referendum. Let’s go on this part of the journey together and deliver change and get rid of this rotten Tory government.
“We have to give back hope to everyone in this country. A belief that Scotland’s best days do lie ahead of us. That’s my mission. That’s our mission. That’s the Labour Party’s mission.”

2.55pm: Tories and SNP ‘best of frenemies’

Sarwar also tells the party faithful the SNP and the Tories are “the best of frenemies”.

“They use each other as an excuse and a cover for their own failings. They both seek to divide us.”

2.50pm: Sarwar ‘confused’ by ever-changing SNP attack lines

Sarwar’s dissection of the many changes in Scottish National Party angles to attack Scottish Labour is worth a read.

“Confused? I was confused even writing this bit,” he says to laughs and applause from the audience.

2.40pm: Imagine five more years of the Tories

Sarwar says families are “working all the hours God sends” but still struggling to pay mortgages, bills and food costs.

But the Tories want to talk about sending refugees to Rwanda and “banning tents for the homeless”.

“And people ask why change matters. Conference, just imagine five more years of these Tories. What an unbearable nightmare.”

2.30pm: ‘The fighting must stop right now’

Sarwar gets big applause for saying “the fighting must stop right now” in Israel and Gaza, and later when we says that Palestinian statehood is a right, not the “gift of a neighbour’.

He condemns Hamas’ October attacks, but also says “collective punishment” cannot be a justifiable response.

People are being “failed by bad faith actors on both sides and the international community”, he says.

He gets further applause for saying Labour will always stand against “prejudice and hate” at home as one of its founding principles.

2.25pm: ‘No-one went into politics to oversee managed decline’

Sarwar vowed to end the “politics of division and despair”, and said we now have not just the chance to elect a Labour government but “put Scotland at the heart of that Labour government”.

He then goes onto how councils have had to make “devastating decisions” amid tight budgets.

He says he “won’t blame any council forced to make cuts”, whatever their political party. “No-one went into politics to oversee managed decline.”

2.20pm: Sarwar highlights Rutherglen success, but says job ‘only started’

Sarwar arrives to big applause and pumping music.

He highlights the scale of Labour’s comeback in Rutherglen and Hamilton West and its English by-election success today, but says the job has “only started”.

 

10.30am: Sarwar to fix NHS waiting lists with non-dom cash

In comments released ahead of the speech, Sarwar is expected to say: “Closing the non-dom tax loophole will deliver £134mn every year in Barnett funding for Scotland.

“So today I commit a future Scottish Labour government to investing every penny of that in our NHS to increase capacity and drive down waiting lists.”

Scottish Labour anticipates that the £134m would be used to generate an additional 160,000 NHS appointments a year.

10am: Sarwar promises “seismic shift in Scottish and UK politics”

Sarwar penned an exclusive op-ed for LabourList earlier today to mark the start of Scottish Labour conference. He wrote: “2023 will always be remembered as the year when a seismic shift in Scottish and UK politics began.

“Our by-election victory in Rutherglen and Hamilton West proved that Scottish Labour has once again become capable of going toe to toe with the SNP at the ballot box.

“The politics of division is in retreat and the idea that things cannot get better is being left behind.”

Read more of LabourList’s Scottish Labour party conference 2024 coverage from our editor in Glasgow:

Tags: Holyrood / Scottish Labour Party Conference 2024 / NHS waiting lists / Scottish labour conference 2024 / Labour conference 2024 / Scottish government / Non-dom status / Glasgow / non-dom / Jackie Baillie / NHS / Scottish Labour conference / Labour Party Conference / By-elections / SNP / Scotland / Scottish Labour / Anas Sarwar / Conference / Labour Party /
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