‘This May Day, Scotland has a government for working people again’

If solidarity has a sound it might well be the noise made by colliery bands. Right across our coalfields, working people made extraordinary music together, an above-ground manifestation of the way they trusted each other and moved as one in the dark.

Tonight, in the government’s Scotland HQ in Edinburgh, I will bring together trade unionists, progressive employers, co-operators and folk from our industrial museums to listen to a brass band and celebrate that Scotland has a government in the service of working people once again.

This government has much to point to when it comes to delivering for Scotland’s workers. Whether it’s £200 million from the National Wealth Fund for Grangemouth or action to save hundreds of Scottish jobs at Harland and Wolff, we stand beside those workers so badly let down by both the Tories and the SNP having no industrial strategy worthy of the name.

The employment rights bill means structural change

When emergency action has been needed, it’s been taken, but we also want to change things structurally and for the long term, and that’s what the employment rights bill was all about.

Every Labour government makes the world of work better. It was the post-war Labour government which vastly extended things like sick pay and pensions. In the 1970s, Labour made workplaces safer and created legislation for equal pay.

After 1997, trade unionists and Labour politicians worked together to transform workers’ rights again, extending maternity leave, introducing paternity and adoption leave and delivering the national minimum wage, immediately raising wages for millions of workers.

Now, this Labour government will ban exploitative zero-hour contracts, end fire and rehire and give workers greater protections against unfair dismissal.

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Pregnant women and new mothers will get stronger protection against losing their jobs and a new right to bereavement leave will help workers when they most need time off.

Our plan for change will grow our economy, tackle in-work poverty and create opportunities for all. We are tackling head-on the low pay, poor working conditions and job insecurity that have been holding our country back.

Labour has already delivered more for working people than the SNP

Less than 12 months on from the election, this Labour government has already delivered more for working people than the SNP have in nearly 20 years.

Scottish workers  were promised by the SNP that we would be the “Saudi Arabia of renewables”, and then watched as jobs flowed overseas.

While Labour took decisive action to retain the UK’s primary steelmaking ability, the SNP supported the sale of Scotland’s remaining steel industry, underwritten with hundreds of millions of pounds of public money. That bad deal has delivered only 40 of the 2,000 promised jobs. Workers now sit at home, effectively furloughed.

Labour is fighting for Scottish industry

While Labour’s Secretary of State for Scotland got to work on Grangemouth the minute he crossed the Scotland Office threshold in July, the SNP did nothing for a decade as the refinery site was wound down.

While Labour stands up for our shipbuilding industry with millions of investment, the SNP has imported foreign steel and awarded ferry contracts to shipbuilders in Turkey and Poland.

While Labour boosts the minimum wage, the SNP cut the £38 million promised to deliver fair work and improve terms and conditions in social care.

While Labour bans exploitative zero hours contracts, the SNP’s John Swinney insists that a zero hours job is a positive destination for a school leaver.

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The simple fact is this: dignity at work and a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work has always been at the heart of Labour politics. We feel this in our bones in a way the nationalists and the Tories never can. And our belief in workers’ potential is limitless: as a Labour government our ambition is nothing less than the reindustrialisation of Scotland.

That’s why this May Day we can celebrate the passing of our employment rights bill, but also look to a future where, at every level of government, Scottish workers will have people who know their struggles and share their dreams.

Our New Deal for Working People was the big prize in 2025, in 2026 it will be winning the Scottish elections and creating a new direction for Scotland’s workers.

Read more on the 2025 local elections:

Analysis and what to expect

• Expert predicts ‘bad night’ with no net Labour gains 
• What’s a good night for Labour?
• ‘Uxbridgitis: If election results are grim, let’s not learn the wrong lessons again’
• Where’s Keir? PM barely features in Labour party election broadcasts for the locals
• The meme elections: Labour’s social media pivot to take fight to Farage

LabourList’s on-the-ground reports from the campaign

• Hull and East Yorkshire: Labour candidate spars with Reform’s boxing star in UK’s most disillusioned city
• Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Nik Johnson on why he’s standing down and Anna Smith on knife-edge Labour-Tory fight to replace him
• West of England: Tory and Green threats, Dan Norris and low voter awareness
• Lancashire: Long shadow of Gaza looms over key battleground

Inside the Runcorn campaign

• Mood on the doorstep: Labour’s last push for Tory voters to keep out Reform
• At least 150 Labour MPs visit – but Keir Starmer ain’t one
• Karen Shore interview: Labour candidate on Reform, the NHS and closing asylum hotels
• Runcorn poll: One in ten Labour voters expected to back Reform

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