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Corbyn launches fight to win back Scotland

Labour leader targets seats to take back from the SNP at the next election

JEREMY CORBYN will take his summer campaign to Scotland next month, as Labour takes advantage of the squabbling among Tory frontbenchers and Theresa May’s plummeting popularity.

The Labour Party aims to build on successes in last month’s general election and be ready to form a government when Ms May’s lack of a majority leads the country to the polls again.

Mr Corbyn will spend five days speaking to supporters across Scotland, hitting 18 marginal seats currently held by the SNP. Labour needs to win 64 seats across Britain for a majority.

Target constituencies include Glasgow South West, Glasgow East, Airdrie and Shotts, Lanark and Hamilton East, Motherwell and Wishaw, Inverclyde and Dunfermline and West Fife, where swings of less than 1 per cent are required for Labour to win.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale welcomed the tour, and pledged to “continue to offer hope with our radical policies to transform Scotland.”

Campaign for Socialism (CfS) secretary Martyn Cook told the Star: “Scottish Labour’s task is make sure people know that Labour offers a real alternative.

“No-one puts that across better than Jeremy and we are delighted that he’ll be here.”

CfS, a left group inside Scottish Labour, has called on the Scottish leadership to change tack, warning that their “dispiritingly visionless” campaign held back the Corbyn-led surge in Scotland during the election.

Its report published yesterday shows that the Labour vote increased by 38 per cent across England and Wales but only managed a small increase of 1 per cent in Scotland.

A CfS spokesman said: “In Scotland, we looked more like Jim Murphy’s Labour Party than Jeremy Corbyn’s — and that isn’t a good look.”

Mr Corbyn said Labour is “ready to end failed austerity and ensure that Scotland has the resources it needs to provide the public services its people deserve.”

He added that Labour would build a fairer Scotland with a £10 an hour minimum wage, scrapping zero-hours contracts, a Brexit deal that puts jobs first, and taxing corporations more to fund public services.

“The only way to remove the Conservatives from Downing Street, and have a government that works for the many, not the few, is to back Labour in Scotland,” he said.

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