In the party’s manifesto, unveiled yesterday, Sarwar said that Scotland has huge potential but “after 20 years of SNP government too many people feel our country is being held back”.

“They see it in our NHS, in soaring waiting lists and the struggle to get a GP appointment. They see it in schools under pressure, in town centres that have been hollowed out, in young people priced out of home ownership, and in families who work hard but feel they are getting nowhere.

“A Scottish Labour government will be relentless in the service of the hard-working majority. It will focus on delivery, not distraction. It will put country before party and the interests of the people of Scotland first.”

The manifesto emphasises Labour’s plan to ‘fix the mess’, ‘get the basics right’ and ‘deliver a better future’, with detailed manifestos for each region of Scotland.

Here are the 20 key pledges highlighted in Scottish Labour’s plan for the nation, from bringing back the family doctor and establishing a mental health emergency service to a right to recall MSPs and scrapping the unfair business rates system:

• Cut NHS wait times with funding following the patient
• End the 8am rush for a GP appointment
• Bring back the family doctor
• New technology in our NHS with an NHS app and AI scanners
• A mental health emergency service
• Top up tax free childcare and two weeks of summer holiday clubs
• Breakfast clubs in every school
• Ban mobile phones in classrooms
• 2,000 Education Recovery teachers and 1,500 more classroom assistants
• 9,000 new apprenticeships to deliver an apprenticeship guarantee
• Abolish the unfair business rates system
• End the block on clean nuclear energy
• Deliver the Glasgow airport rail link
• Community police officers for every neighbourhood
• A £350m potholes fund to fix the roads
• Fair funding for local communities
• 125,000 new homes to fix the broken housing market
• End government waste and cut a third of quangos
• A right to recall MSPs
• More support for people trying to buy their own home

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While abhorrent comment sections may be plagued with misinformation and personal feeds become increasingly clogged with what is being termed ‘AI slop’, it is undeniable that social media has become a necessity for politicians looking to place their messaging directly in front of the electorate. This is now true to the extent the Prime Minister has held ‘influencer’ press conferences in his own efforts to improve Number 10’s comms game.

READ MORE: ‘Wales is at the start of a new chapter, but it could all be at risk’

While scrolling one afternoon I came across a video of a Scottish Labour candidate. They were in a local takeaway, discussing the vast range of choices one might consider while ordering on a late night outing. This is a classic problem I can admit I’ve struggled to solve myself – especially on the way back from the occasional weekend trip to the local pub.

“Sometimes when there’s so much choice you can’t decide you just have to order a munchie box with onion rings, pakora, doner meat, chips and naan bread” he tells the camera, walking out of the local takeaway. Then comes the important point.

“But in this election, there’s a straight choice between Scottish Labour and the SNP. Only Scottish Labour can get the SNP government out and in Paisley only I can beat the SNP.”

‘Back Bibby to beat the SNP’ is then flashed onto the screen. The video is shorter than 30 seconds. The hook is effective, the message is clear, the algorithm likes it. Impressive.

Scottish Labour’s candidate for Paisley in May, and the man behind this successfully constructed political video, is West Scotland Region MSP, Neil Bibby. While reporting from Scotland last week, LabourList met with Neil for an exclusive interview.

As you scroll through the MSP’s social media account you will find this video style is one of many.

Bingo with Wes Streeting: filmed at the local Mecca and detailing “five numbers to remember”, all of which take aim at the SNP’s record and promote Labour’s chances. Football content outlining that four teams could be in with a chance to win the Scottish league, but only two parties have a chance to win the election in May. A Valentine’s Day ‘roses are red’ poem calling for the audience to provide suggestions on how to improve Paisley.

Bibby’s strategy is targeted and authentic. Focussing on relatability to provide the message he wishes to share helps to maintain the engagement social media rewards.

He is not the only Labour politician from Scotland to find success through short form video, with Labour MP for Glasgow South Gordon McKee also having built a reputation of producing effective content across social platforms. Both McKee and Bibby are creating algorithm-friendly communications that many Labour MPs could learn from. You leave their posts feeling informed without being overwhelmed, understanding clearly the points they are seeking to convey.

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This approach to video content demonstrates not just an understanding of social media as a tool, but an understanding of people. These are not polished party political broadcasts repackaged for TikTok or Instagram ‘Reels’. Through building around relatable everyday experiences, the politics is not forced upon the viewer but follows naturally from the hook.

Too often, attempts at “doing social media” in politics fall into one of two traps: either overly scripted content that feels inauthentic, or hollow stunts that generate attention without delivering a message. Neither builds trust or leaves the viewer any clearer on what a candidate actually stands for.

The lesson here for the wider Labour Party is not that every candidate needs to film themselves in a takeaway or on a football pitch. It is that effective video communication must be authentic to you. Honesty is the most important characteristic for our politicians to lead with when presenting themselves, especially in a time of such low public trust in the political system.

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If we want to rebuild faith that our elected representatives can deliver on their promises then we have to be able to communicate with them. In the modern age of social media the best way you can do that is to be yourself while finding a place of common ground to connect with people.

The post ‘Honest hooks, not silly stunts’ appeared first on LabourList.

It became immediately apparent that Neil is an incredibly dedicated candidate who understands the need for an effective communication strategy. He acknowledged a general apathy for politics at present, with many voters disillusioned and claiming to have not spent much time thinking about the upcoming election. He pointed out that while a Scottish election had been scheduled for some time, “it’s only in the last couple of weeks that it’s really… resonated with people.”

“I think…that moment when the polling cards go out and people realise ‘there’s an election on’ that’s when people have started to really think about their choice in May.”

READ MORE: ‘It’s going to be all about ground game’: Paul Sweeney on Scottish Labour’s fight for Glasgow

This is a narrative we found repeated across Scotland, with many Labour activists and candidates predicting the upcoming election may see a drop in voter turnout at the ballot box.

Scottish Labour released their manifesto on Monday 13th April, less than four weeks away from polling day. Perhaps this was to ensure their policies could be discussed across the time when people were beginning to pay attention.

What did he think had caused such disillusion with the political system in Scotland going into this election?

“I think there’s a sense of people paying more and more and getting less and less.” This answer remains consistent with the language Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar uses to describe the situation Scotland finds itself in, when speaking in the leadership debate held in Paisley on Sunday 12th April.

Both say that responsibility ultimately lies with the SNP. “After 20 years” Neil said the SNP have shown a “failure to get the basics right.”

Bibby described the SNP as having a “huge budget” but had failed to utilise it, creating significant amounts of “waste” that Scottish Labour would need to clear up if elected.

Examples he discussed included the “ferries fiasco”, where Neil pointed out that “hundreds and hundreds of millions of pounds getting spent on ferries that don’t sail.” This was not solely an issue for the islanders who lost out on connectivity with the mainland. “Everybody in Scotland is paying the cost… taxpayers here are footing the bill.”

He also pointed to the size of the Scottish civil service, arguing “for a population of over 5 million, we’ve got more quangos and agencies, and we have MSPs!”

The SNP record leaves a lot to be desired. Bibby feels this is a result of the separatist party being more focused on constitutional issues than running the country effectively. “We’ve got a party in government that has been obsessed with issues outside its control.”

The issue of independence has become a key talking point for the SNP again entering this election. When asked if this was coming up on the doorstep, Bibby noted that it is not a dominant issue for many voters. “Some people… it does come up… but… people have got other things to deal with.” He also suggested that the SNP’s record weakens its argument: “It almost became a barrier to independence… because people see the issues… in public services.”

While Bibby could articulate how the SNP were responsible for many issues the Scottish electorate faced, how did he perceive the voters felt towards them? “There’s definitely a sense in Paisley… after 20 years of the SNP… there is time for a change.”

He continued to set out an array of issues that were voters consistently raised on the doorstep. Cost of living was a regular talking point with the electorate desperate for the government to provide some relief.

Housing shortages were also raised in relation to broader social concerns. “We’ve got a housing emergency in Scotland, we don’t have enough homes,” he told us before adding that Scottish Labour have a policy to tackle this: “We’ve promised to build 125,000 more homes over the next five years.”

Local conditions, such as street cleanliness and road maintenance, were described as highly visible indicators of poor government performance that led to voter dissatisfaction. “The very first interaction that you have… is when you step outside your door.”

He stressed the importance of delivering quickly on visible improvements if Scottish Labour were to win the election. “If you can clean them up… it’s one of those immediate impact opportunities to say things are getting better.”

Infrastructure gaps were also highlighted, particularly transport links “You can get a train from Glasgow Central to Manchester… but you can’t get a train from Glasgow Central to Glasgow Airport.” An improvement to infrastructure “would be the biggest shot in the arm for the local economy” he explained as it would open up more job opportunities for people in Paisley. 

The most prevalent issue for Scottish voters though was, by far, the NHS – particularly around access and waiting times with many reporting they struggle to get a GP appointment or operation when they need them in Scotland. He provided a specific example from a constituent. “I’m not voting SNP because… they cost me 7 grand” he explaind “he had to go private for cataracts operations.”

The MSP outlined Scottish Labour’s focus on core public services offering a realistic approach to government. The message was simple: “We want to get the basics right.”

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He was also careful to suggest that Scottish Labour should not suggest they can over-promise and risk further alienation of voters. “We’re not going to promise… to fix absolutely everything,” he explained it would be unrealistic to suggest this. But recognised that in improving the public services that people interact with on a daily basis, Scottish Labour could provide the hopeful feeling of change the country needed.

We moved on to discuss his social media strategy (something he has become known for), with Neil explaining both how he thought of ideas and why he chose to promote his campaign in this way. He explained that his videos were designed to be relatable as a means of “making politics more accessible”.

With so many people generally uninterested in politics, he recognised how difficult it was to battle for attention on heavily saturated social media platforms. His videos were designed to break through this. “You need to try and get a message across… in a way that draws people in.” 

“Things like football… going to a takeaway… are relatable experiences.” 

Through hooking people with something they found familiar, he could swiftly pivot into discussing the key lines he wanted them to come away with. Bibby explained that this was also having an effect, with him finding that his local profile has increased in Paisley since he started making this content. We asked the waitress at the cafe if she had seen Neil’s videos, she immediately referencing his ‘keepy-ups’ football video.

As we discussed this at length, Neil treated LabourList to an exclusive viewing of the video he had planned for the weekend (now posted to his social media channels) revolving around the grand national. Again he uses a topical talking point that will pick up traction to squeeze in his message of a ‘two-horse race’ between Scottish Labour and the SNP.

While engaging content is important, he also made sure to stress the need for them not to venture into ‘political stunts’, which many have accused the likes of Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey of relying on.

For the Paisley candidate, the message is much more important than the ‘bit’. Whatever concept he has chosen to focus his video around is solely there to hook the viewer, buying him enough time to divert their attention to the message he wishes to get through. Most often in this case, the message is that only Scottish Labour can defeat the SNP.

He was also firm on the necessity for content to be authentic, suggesting that if it wasn’t it simply would not work.

Bibby traces his political values to his upbringing, most notably due to his parents roles as social workers. He described this as providing him with “values around equality and fairness.” As a result his motivation in politics is rooted in public service and his connection to the local area, which he feels is central to his candidacy: “I live in the town… I use the same services as you.”

When asked his favourite thing about the place he wants to represent, there was no hesitation in his response.

“The people of Paisley… there’s a community spirit… a solidarity.”

As the end of our time with the candidate who had a day of conversations with the community ahead of him, he returned us to the sense of pragmatic realism that remains central to his approach.

“I can’t promise to fix everything… but I’ll always promise to try my best.”

We finished our interview by asking for a book recommendation from Neil. He recommends The Political Brain by Drew Weston for LabourList readers.

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The post ‘How to make politics more accessible’: An interview with Neil Bibby MSP appeared first on LabourList.

Some weeks this didn’t happen, because it just wasn’t collected. About one week in every three from my experience, though sometimes there were three week gaps between collections.

This was the reality of bin collections in Birmingham until Unite went on strike a year ago. It was a practice called Task and Finish. That meant that when they had finished their allotted round they were free to go home. A big incentive to go fast and do as little as you can get away with. Task and Finish was supposed to have stopped in 2015 but it didn’t. It came back with Covid, and was still going in 2022, when lorries were filmed leaving Tyseley depot at 5a.m. and coming back at 9a.m having done rounds which were meant to take a day.

READ MORE:It’s bin a year…Unite strikes in Birmingham continue past the 12 month mark

It’s easy for Labour people to believe Unite when they paint their members as working class heroes victimised by a wicked unworthy Labour council. They have a magnificent press operation. Experiencing their service, though, gives you pause. And what makes things worse is their role in the financial problems of Birmingham city council.

In 2023 Birmingham issued a section 114 notice, which meant the council was unable to meet its debts: what the unsympathetic local press called ‘bankruptcy’. The result was two years of drastic service cuts. They included closing libraries and reducing hours; significant cuts to adult social care and children’s services; and a phased withdrawal of all arts grants, including that to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Council tax rose by 10% in 2024 and 7.5% in 2025. It’s been a painful experience for all Brummies. But this is where the Unite refuse workers come in.

The main cause of the section 114 notice was the liability from equal pay claims. There was also a significant problem with a new computer service, but the biggest issue was and is equal pay. Local authority job grading is done by a national system which allows very different jobs to be compared against each other.

Nationally, refuse workers are at grade 2. So are women care workers and some administrative staff. The Unite refuse workers have, over the years, succeeded in gaining a special status, and protecting it by ruthless industrial action. We’ve had strikes in 2010, 2018-19, and again now. It’s a bit like Longbridge in the 1970s, and I think that’s where the culture originated. Union power did for any attempt to get rid of ‘Task and Finish’.

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Part of the Unite workers’ special status is that a lot of them were paid at grade 3 rather than 2. As part of the deal that ended the previous strike, some of them were made Waste Recycling and Collection Officers, with an increase in grading. It’s difficult to see what extra they do for this. Birmingham bin rounds are like everywhere else’s and the staff do the same tasks. Unite have talked about ‘safety critical’ roles but that comes down to things like acting as banksman in front of reversing lorries in cul-de-sac streets: something which would be part of the job anywhere else. (As a personal note, my old job as a manager took me into transport yards and if a reversing HGV driver asked me to act as banksman, I did it without hesitation.)

The Waste Recycling and Collection Officers do what ordinary refuse workers do everywhere else. But because they are at grade 3, women council workers, backed reasonably by their unions, particularly Unison, have been able to claim equal pay with them. There is a parallel situation with some drivers being graded at 4 not 3. And from both of these come the biggest cause of Birmingham City Council’s financial troubles. The Unite refuse workers are at the bottom of it. Significantly, there haven’t been any similar equal pay claims elsewhere; yet bins get collected. That’s why the city council has to remove the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer roles. If they remain, there will be even more equal pay claims.

Therefore all the council’s proposals involve removing them. Waste Recycling and Collection Officers will retain their grade 3 pay for six months if they stay as refuse workers. They will be helped to retrain for other council jobs at grade 3. Or they can leave with a reasonable package. Other councils allow workers to retain their pay for longer when their jobs are downgraded. Otherwise it seems a fair offer to me. After all, every refuse worker on grade 3 means social services workers, librarians and community workers being made redundant.

One aspect of the Birmingham bin strike which has not been covered in the media is that not all refuse workers are members of Unite. Some are in the GMB. They are not in dispute. For nearly a year now, we have had ordinary refuse collections, done by GMB members and contract staff. They have happened every week. They’re done properly, without mess. Bins are left near houses. We’re not getting recycling collections, but we are getting a good service for ordinary waste. It’s quite a change.

A problem for Birmingham city council is that it’s the largest local authority in Britain outside London – so it’s a target for everyone (famously Michael Gove) including ambitious union leaders and officers. They don’t have to be Labour supporters. I’ve never heard Sharon Graham say anything positive about Labour, and Onay Kasab, the full timer in charge of the bin strike, is a supporter of the Socialist Party, which used to be the Militant Tendency: the Trotskyist group which infiltrated Labour in the 1980s. He was expelled from Unison in 2011. Birmingham is sitting there waiting to be attacked by people like that. But Labour is at least trying to deal with the problem unlike everyone else.

Supporting trade unionists is in my blood. My Dad was a union branch chair whose committee met round our dining table. I’m a retired member of what was the Society of Telecom Executives (now part of Prospect) and went out on strike twice in my working days. I am also a fairly left wing member of the Labour Party. I voted twice for Jeremy Corbyn and don’t regret it. This is the first time I’ve ever said anything like what follows.

It’s time to stop any automatic support for the Birmingham refuse workers. They have given Birmingham a poor service for years but cost the council tax payers more than anywhere else for it. If they lose, we might get a decent bin service, and manage to protect what’s left of Birmingham’s other municipal services.

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The post ‘Supporting trade unionists is in my blood but it’s time to stop automatic support for Birmingham refuse workers’ appeared first on LabourList.

When the world becomes more uncertain, people need stability, seriousness and governments focused on the real priorities. This is not a time for protest. Jobs, the NHS, security and tackling the cost of living have always been my priority, and now, more than ever it must be the priority of the Welsh Government. 

And yet, Plaid Cymru offers something very different. Their very reason for being would consign Wales to years of constitutional upheaval and economic uncertainty. They’re at pains to say this election isn’t about independence. Clearly someone should’ve told the team writing the manifesto, because their plan is right there for all to see.  

READ MORE: Can Welsh Labour defy the odds and win control of the Senedd again?

When families are struggling with household bills, what’s on their agenda in the first 100 days? A commission on the future of the constitution, and a commitment to a White Paper on independence. At a time when global economic pressures are already hitting families, Plaid Cymru wants Wales to take the biggest economic gamble in its modern history. They need to be honest with voters about their plans.

Our Welsh Labour manifesto has fairness at its core, helping put money back in people’s pockets. From capping bus fares at £2, to bringing energy prices down through our commitment to an energy independent Wales and legislating for year-round pay for school support staff – a pay rise for some of the lowest paid public sector workers.

Time and again Plaid Cymru has shown they would rather pick constitutional fights than solve real problems. 

In the closing weeks of the Senedd term, Plaid teamed up with Reform and the Tories to vote against the Crime and Policing Bill – a bill that would protect shop workers from violence and abuse. Then when it came to the Hillsborough Law gaining consent, they abstained. Standing up for Wales means backing laws that keep Welsh people safe, not picking fights just for the sake of it.  

I’m proud of our NHS. It’s not without its challenges and we know that people are frustrated, but we are making progress. Waiting lists down eight months in a row, thanks to the investment we’ve put in. That progress is at risk if Plaid gets into power. Rhun ap Iorwerth is on record as saying that people don’t expect his party to make a difference to waits in their first 100 days. Where’s the ambition in that? 

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Speaking of ambition, we’ve committed to a £4bn Hospitals of the Future Fund  to build three hospitals across Wales, revitalising, renewing and rebuilding our NHS estate. Plaid’s plan? Well the man who wants to be the next Health Secretary has discussed mothballing parts of Wales’s biggest hospital to save money. The truth is, when independence is your priority, everything else comes second – including the NHS.

Labour created the NHS, and we will always protect and preserve it. 

This election sees a lot of changes coming to how we elect our Senedd. There will be more members, six for each of the 16 new constituencies and a different way to vote them in. This is no longer a first past the post system, tactical voting doesn’t work in the same way, voting for one party to stop another just isn’t a possibility. Every vote counts.

Plaid are fully aware of how this system works, they helped bring it in after all, and yet they’re misleading voters telling them they have to vote Plaid to stop Reform.

This is wrong, and they know it. 

Under this new proportional voting system, seats are allocated based on overall vote share across the region.  In some areas, the kind of tactical voting Plaid are encouraging could actually make it easier for Reform to win seats. They’ll have a lot of explaining to do if that comes to pass. 

At a time when trust in politics is already fragile, Wales deserves honesty about how elections work. Misleading voters risks undermining confidence in our democracy and Plaid needs to be honest about that. For me, it’s very simple: if you want Welsh Labour, vote Welsh Labour – with the assurance that we will block Reform. 

In an uncertain world, this election should be about stability. That’s not the same as continuity. Things will change with Welsh Labour, but they’ll change according to a proper, costed plan.

Welsh Labour is focused on the priorities people talk about every day

1. good jobs & the cost of living 
2. a stronger NHS
3. Energy security
4. a stronger Senedd for Wales

Plaid Cymru is focused on constitutional fights and political upheaval. Reform would divide our communities and treat Wales as a stepping stone to Westminster.

In a more dangerous and fractious world, that is a risk Wales cannot afford. Only Welsh Labour can provide the stability and ambition Wales needs for a fairer future.

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The Hillsborough Law, which would impose a duty for public authorities to act with candour and transparency, had been delayed over disagreement about whether intelligence agencies would also be covered by the legislation.

The bill’s progress through the House of Commons was paused over the issue, with more than 20 Labour MPs planning to back amendments that would have ensured officers from MI5, MI6 and GCHQ were bound by the legislation’s requirements.

An announcement on the compromise is expected to be made next week, after the anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster on Wednesday.

As the parliamentary session is due to end in the coming weeks, government insiders are said to have admitted that the bill will have to be rolled over into the next one.

A government spokesperson said: “We are working with the families, who have campaigned for decades, to get this bill right.

“The bill will fundamentally change how public authorities and officials behave during inquiries and investigations, ensuring honesty and transparency, so the state must always act for the people it serves.”

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The site, created by unionist campaign group Scotland in Union, has urged voters to back Scottish Labour in 47 constituencies across the nation to prevent the SNP securing another five years in power in the Scottish Parliament.

The website also encourages Scots to back the Conservatives in 16 seats and the Liberal Democrats in ten.

For the regional vote, the campaign calls for voters to back “the party you want to support”, so long as it is not the SNP or the Scottish Greens.

It comes as The Times suggests that Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar outperformed SNP leader and First Minister John Swinney in a BBC debate last night.

Reporter Alex Massie said: “He scored a slam-dunk victory on the NHS and made a sensible distinction between the impacts of legal and illegal immigration.

“His focus on what the Scottish government can do was contrasted with Swinney’s constant attempts to pin responsibility for Scottish government shortcomings on ‘Westminster’.”

Latest polling by YouGov puts Labour third behind the SNP and Reform UK, with the pollster’s seat forecast putting Swinney on track for an overall majority in Holyrood.

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Of course, commentators are not alone in this – many of the parties themselves have not adjusted their campaigning to deal with the world we’re in, not the one we’re used to. ‘Only X can beat Y’ has long been a feature of campaign messaging. But, as we saw in Gorton and Denton, the voters aren’t necessarily buying it. Seat by seat, they are aware that they are choosing between a wider range of options and are looking both at the message they want to send with their support as well as who they want to block.

READ MORE: ‘Hold on to this feeling: Change is a journey’

Within Labour, the debate has become focused on whether we should be trying to attract those we are losing to the Greens or those we are losing to Reform. But close your eyes and what you actually hear is a more classic debate about whether Labour should go right or left.

This is both a factional and geographical response. Labour, because of the breadth of our extraordinary 2024 win, is fighting challenges from both sides. So MPs who are facing a threat from Reform in smaller towns have very different political pressures from those facing Green threats in the cities.

Both Reform and the Greens have a ceiling on their vote. Their job is to offer a pure vision that will maximise turnout among those who buy into it. But in doing so, there are voters who are put off by their more extreme elements.

Labour, though, has always sought to be a party of broad support – a party that works for workers but that can also appeal to the middle class. That has always meant a broader – or, for some critics (both internal and external), less pure – offer.

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In crowded fields in both England and Wales, changes at the margin have the capacity to make a significant difference to the outcome. As challenger parties continue to purify their offer, they potentially lower the ceiling on their vote. This may be what we have been seeing with the, admittedly mild so far, decline in Reform’s polling. It may also be what we are seeing in the disquiet coming from some more traditional Green Party supporters, who did not back the party to champion left-wing populism but to give voice to their prioritisation of protecting the planet and our environment.

In Scotland the SNP are offering their own sly purity message. They are campaigning against the UK government rather than on their own record in Scotland. Well, they can’t really, can they? Drug deaths in Scotland remain the worst in Europe. Their PISA school rankings are declining. 5,000 people in Scotland are due to wait more than two years for an operation. In the much larger population of England, it’s 300.

So the SNP are hoping that in elections for Holyrood, voters will not think about the Scottish Parliament but the UK government. We know that they will claim that every single vote for them is a vote for devolution. But how can they make a case for devolution when they can’t make a case for running Scotland well as it is? This is the slight of hand the SNP are hoping to pull off. 

To deal with the world as it is, Labour does not need to think about how it can be more like the purist version of either the Greens or Reform in the same way that Scottish Labour – as you will see from our reporting this week – are not trying to out SNP the SNP. 

Instead, they need to think about how to appeal to the voters who are on the margins of both and are put off by those parties in their purest forms. They need to hammer the SNP on their failures in Scotland. Labour has to be the party that is talking about Scotland while the SNP gets trapped talking about anything else. 

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It will be at those margins that Labour has the best chance to get voters to give us more of a chance to deliver change at every level. Offering positive local offers in English councils and highlighting the work Labour is delivering in councils across England. Offering a positive account of our record in Wales. And being the Party that cares about Scottish jobs and services – not obsessed with their constitution and the UK government. 

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Since 2010, Viktor Orbán has used his power in the Hungarian Parliament to put his thumb on the scale of democracy; packing courts with loyalists, having media organisations bought up by pro-government moguls, and amending the nation’s constitution at will – including controversial electoral reforms.

All of this makes yesterday’s landslide election result all the more extraordinary. Peter Magyar’s TISZA party overcame a system rigged against the opposition, used social media and traditional in-person rallies to reach the electorate and motivated voters to turnout in record numbers to eject Orban from power. The scale of TISZA’s victory, with a two-thirds ‘supermajority’ in the Hungarian parliament, will give Magyar the power to dismantle the systems built up by Orbán to serve himself and his allies.

It comes after a string of scandals that has beset Fidesz for several years, including a presidential pardoning of a paedophile, an attempt to ban Pride in Budapest, and even leaking information of private EU meetings to the Russians. All of which comes alongside a flagging economy due to an over-reliance on Russian oil and gas. On election day, Hungarians decided by a vast majority that enough is enough.

Orbán’s go-to campaign tactic, blaming Brussels, George Soros, Zelensky and Ukraine – anyone other than himself – was found wanting this time. In acts of desperation, Orbán attempted to tarnish the opposition leader by teasing a possible sex tape and even a suspected false flag attack on a gas pipeline, but the Hungarian people would not be swayed.

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For us on the centre-left, Magyar may not be the progressive messiah we would wish for. 

Magyar was also once part of Fidesz, quitting the party in disgust over the paedophile scandal and becoming the torch bearer for the opposition. His public opposition to fast-tracking Ukraine’s bid for EU membership raises eyebrows in some European countries. However, his plans to impose a one percent wealth tax, boost healthcare spending, end Hungary’s reliance on Russian energy and restore the nation’s fractured relationship with the European Union amount to a seismic reset.

The Hungarian Socialist Party and several other parties opted to stand aside in favour of TISZA, while the progressive Democratic Coalition slumped to just one percent of the vote, losing all their seats.

Watching the results pour in last night with my Hungarian partner, who voted for the first time at this election, was deeply moving. Hungarians turned out in huge numbers, with Fidesz constituency after Fidesz constituency toppling like dominoes. They rejected, at long last, the politics of fear, division and hatred, in favour of the promise of a return to liberal democracy.

In effect, Hungarians rejected culture war politics, MAGA overtures and Russian influence in favour of a party that pledged to restore investment, rebalance tax so the burden falls on those with the broadest shoulders and making the basics, like the health service, work for people once again.

While Hungary and its political system is far from an analogue for Britain, it is a timely reminder that hard-right and far-right populism isn’t an inevitability, and that a message of hope and the promise of a better tomorrow can be an antidote to the hatred they offer.

So gratulálok, Hungary – and here’s to a new beginning for your democracy. The hard work to unpick 16 years of Fidesz corruption starts today.

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At the general election almost two years ago, the party swept the board – winning all six Westminster constituencies from the SNP.

However, with polls suggesting a slump in support for Scottish Labour, can the party hope to make the inroads it needs in the nation’s largest city?

LabourList met with Paul Sweeney at Scottish Labour’s battle bus launch in Glasgow, where Sweeney is aiming to be re-elected to Holyrood – this time as the constituency MSP for Glasgow Easterhouse and Springburn.

He said: “We’ve got a great team of candidates in Glasgow – people with a great track record, both seasoned candidates and new candidates.”

Sweeney said that, for all the difficulty Labour is having nationally in polling, there is no love lost for the SNP on the doorstep.

“There is a real sense [that after] 20 years of SNP rule people are really scunnered with them. There’s certainly challenges when it comes to the UK Labour Party. We all know about the difficulties there, but honestly, there’s no love for the SNP. People are actually yearning to get rid of them.

“I was out in Denniston, which is normally quite strong for the SNP. I was really taken aback by the level of support for Labour. In fact, three or four people were telling me the SNP had been round a couple of hours beforehand and were getting chased off the door.”

Sweeney said that he anticipates that the election “isn’t going to be a sweeping landslide for any party”, despite polls suggesting that the SNP could have a majority in Holyrood within their grasp.

“It’s going to be a grim fight, like what we saw in Hamilton. You’re probably going to see low turnout and parties winning seats on quite low margins of the vote.

“It’s going to be all about our ground game, and that’s where Labour excels.”

‘The SNP have failed Glasgow’

Reflecting on what SNP rule has meant for Glasgow, Sweeney said Labour’s record stands in stark contrast to that of the current Scottish government and the SNP-controlled city council. In particular, he pointed to the Scottish Event Campus, the site of the battle bus launch.

“The SEC was a Labour project to help reboot the city after post-industrial decline. Labour’s committed to investing in its expansion and to make it one of the premier events venues in Europe.

“It’s symbolic of what’s not happening under the SNP – the worst local government settlement in Scotland, in a city which desperately needs those social improvements.

“The SNP have failed Glasgow. They’ve been resistant to the idea of metro mayors, which have been such a success in the rest of the UK.

“We want to push the reset button and give Glasgow back its rightful status as one of the UK’s top five cities.”

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‘Reform aren’t going to represent the disenfranchised working class’

Although polls have suggested a fragmentation of support among parties other than the SNP, Sweeney noted that the Scottish Greens – which have seen a boost in support – are not standing candidates in every constituency seat.

“The Greens aren’t standing candidates in Glasgow apart from in two seats, so the left fragmentation isn’t as pronounced as in others. I reckon there is a good squeeze opportunity there for someone who’s looking for a progressive candidate, rather than an SNP government minister who’s been presiding over austerity for Glasgow.”

On Reform, Sweeney said Farage’s campaign in Scotland has already been “discredited”, with the party’s Scottish leader missing from the campaign trail while he took part in a yachting race in the English Channel.

“This is not someone who’s going to represent the disenfranchised working class who are alienated from politics.”

‘Undecided voters are all in play’

Sweeney said that there are many voters that are undecided as the election campaign kicks off, with the biggest share of those being people who backed Labour at the general election.

“They’re sitting and watching what is happening right now. Our job is to get out there and persuade them to come out and vote Labour.

“I’ve spoken to over 4,000 people in the constituency and what you’re hearing is a lot of friendly undecideds, who are not against Labour by any means but haven’t fully made their minds up yet. They’re all in play.

“I think you can see big shifts in the polling in Scotland in the next four weeks.”

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