‘The route to change’: Anas Sarwar speaks to LabourList as Scottish Labour unveils campaign battle bus

Anas Sarwar kickstarted the election campaign with the unveiling of Scottish Labour’s battle bus at an event in Glasgow.

Flanked by an array of the party’s candidates for the upcoming Holyrood elections, Sarwar said that Labour was the “route to change” in the election.

He said that Scotland will choose an NHS that works for them, opportunities for young people, 125,000 more homes to end homelessness, and safer streets and stronger communities over a third decade of SNP rule.

“You’ve given John Swinney 20 years, all I humbly ask is give me five. And in that five years, we will demonstrate that Scottish politics can work. We will demonstrate that we can change our country and bring people together at the same time. We will demonstrate that you can beat the SNP, reject Reform and build a better future for our great country.

“Let’s go and win that great future together.”

The launch of the battle bus comes less than four weeks before Scotland goes to the polls and ahead of Scottish Labour’s manifesto launch on Monday.

Speaking with LabourList, Sarwar offered a simple message to motivate members to campaign for a Scottish Labour government in Holyrood.

“We have the opportunity for the first time in a generation to change the government here in Scotland. After 20 years, every single person across this country knows that Scotland needs change – and the argument we have to make in demonstrating that over the course of the next four weeks is that only Scottish Labour can deliver.

“In the vast majority of constituencies in this country, it is a straight choice between Labour and the SNP. 

“If you want to fix our NHS, if you want to guarantee opportunities for our amazing young people, if you want to build 125,000 new homes so we can drive down homelessness and eradicate rough sleeping once and for all, if you want safer streets and stronger communities, and if you want to end the waste, get the basics right and cut taxes in this country, you’ve got to back Scottish Labour.”

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When asked about what book has shaped his political philosophy, Sarwar said Team of Rivals, a biographical portrait of former US President Abraham Lincoln and those who served in his cabinet during the American Civil War.

“So much of it has a lesson for us in our modern-day politics, where you have big divisive politics and big personalities in the US that Abe Lincoln was able to pull together because he wanted to unify his country and change it for the better.

“My goodness, do we need some of that in our country now. We have politicians in this country who are desperate to divide us and play on people’s fears and the challenges this country faces, rather than actually confront those challenges, fix that mess, and pull our country together.

“That’s the different kind of politician I am to the politics of Nigel Farage and John Swinney.”

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