{"id":697949,"date":"2026-01-15T15:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T15:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/697949\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T15:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T15:52:11","slug":"starmer-insists-he-will-deliver-for-scotland-amid-labour-poll-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/697949\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer insists he will ‘deliver for Scotland’ amid Labour poll fears"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Today, the Prime Minister travelled north on Thursday ahead of the Scottish election, as Reform UK<\/a> leader Nigel Farage<\/a> and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch also campaigned in Scotland.\n<\/p>\n

\n The visits followed the first Scottish opinion poll of 2026, which showed Labour battling with Reform for second place at Holyrood, while John Swinney\u2019s SNP<\/a> remains on course for a fifth consecutive election victory.\n<\/p>\n

\n Asked directly whether his position could be at risk if Labour struggles in May, Sir Keir said only that his job \u201cis to deliver for Scotland\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n Pressed on whether he is personally putting voters off supporting Labour, the Prime Minister repeated: \u201cMy job is to deliver for Scotland.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Speaking during a visit to Perth, Sir Keir sought to distance himself from the contest, saying the election is not about his performance or his Government at Westminster, but about \u201cwho governs Scotland\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n Labour is hoping to unseat the SNP, which has governed at Holyrood since 2007.\n<\/p>\n

\n Sir Keir said that after 19 years of SNP rule, Scotland has a \u201chealth service where there\u2019s too many people on the waiting list\u201d, alongside \u201ceducation and public services which are on their knees\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n He added that the UK Government<\/a> had awarded \u201crecords amount of money\u201d to Scotland at its most recent budget, questioning how it has been spent by Mr Swinney\u2019s administration.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think across Scotland people are entitled to ask, \u2018Where has the money gone John?,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe election in May is not an election about who is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom \u2013 it is about who should be first minister of Scotland.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe question is what is in the best interests of Scotland? I think the best interests of Scotland is change with Anas Sarwar<\/a>.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n During a visit to energy firm SSE, the Prime Minister also criticised the SNP\u2019s \u201cideological\u201d opposition to new nuclear power stations.\n<\/p>\n

\n He said a new nuclear project would bring jobs and investment to Wales, and argued Scotland could see similar benefits if Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour<\/a> leader, becomes first minister.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got a wall of money we want to invest in Scotland, the SNP are saying \u2018no we don\u2019t want that\u2019,\u201d Sir Keir said.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf there\u2019s a Labour government in Scotland we will be back the day after the election and we will make sure that investment is translated into good jobs in Scotland<\/a>.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Reform leader Nigel Farage, meanwhile, claimed the May election would be a \u201ctwo-horse race\u201d between his party and the SNP.\n<\/p>\n

\n Despite Reform currently holding just one MSP, Mr Farage said growing support could deliver a surprise result. \u201cI think we could even surprise ourselves with just how many votes we manage to garner in this election,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n Speaking after naming former Tory minister Malcolm Offord as Reform\u2019s Scottish leader, Mr Farage added: \u201cA huge chunk of the Scottish electorate are looking for something different, they\u2019re tired of the decline this country has seen under SNP Government.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n He said Reform would be \u201cseen as the main opposition\u201d to the SNP, arguing that Labour and the Conservatives have failed to challenge \u201cmuch of the damage the SNP have done for Scotland\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today, the Prime Minister travelled north on Thursday ahead of the Scottish election, as Reform UK leader Nigel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-697949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-scotland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115899920745916654","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}