Osama Saeed increased his party’s share of the vote in the constituency by 2.7%, which was above the national average, and one of the better results for the SNP in the West of Scotland.

Osama Saeed commented:

“We ran a great campaign and I’m really proud of the team. Our campaign was the one with the imagination and energy in Glasgow Central.

“We led with ideas such as holding surgeries before being elected, the pledge for a city centre office, and of course the high speed rail campaign. We also led with our progressive values on scrapping Trident, binning ID cards, opposition to war and our belief in investing in our communities.

“We won the online war and the poster war. We knocked thousands of doors and delivered an incredible amount of literature.The campaign attracted broad social support from leftwing figures to top policemen.

“We couldn’t have done any more, we gave it our all, and so we can have no regrets. I will be eternally grateful to my campaign team. We had a great time, there will be moments to cherish for years to come, and the journey was more rewarding for having done it with you.

“Thank you also to those that voted for me, to those that helped in so many ways, and to those who gave words of encouragement. The struggle goes on, and through the difficult number of years that seem to lie in store for the country."

Osama Saeed’s campaign has released a new video where he appeals to Liberal Democrat, Green, Solidarity and SSP voters to vote for him given that he stands the best chance of beating Labour. He stressed that this election is about issues that they agree on – protecting jobs and services, the environment, Trident, Labour’s ID database, and the war.

Saeed will be visiting student and elderly groups today. He commented:

“Going round the constituency over the last few weeks and analysing the responses to my survey, I’m finding that there is wholesale agreement in this seat about the core issues of what this election is about.

“However, despite Labour being inimical to these causes and principles, there is a very real danger they will win again.

“Labour have spin and positions on all the core matters. The rest of us have beliefs.

"For example, Labour say they want to restore the link between pensions and earnings. The reality is they have done nothing on this for 13 years and presided over a huge devaluation of pensioner income.

"The local Labour candidate says he’s against tuition fees. The reality is his party brought them in, and the previous MP here helped enforce top up fees in England.

“As we’ve seen during this campaign, Labour may say the right thing to your face, but they do another once they are back in their cars.

“It’s time there was a progressive Glasgow voice elected to Westminster from this constituency, and I will champion the values we hold dear.”

One of Scotland’s former top cops – the recently retired co-ordinator of anti-terrorism for Scotland Allan Burnett today backed Osama Saeed and the SNP at the upcoming election.

Speaking at a rally for Saeed with Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, the former Assistant Chief Constable highlighted the SNP government’s delivery of 1000 new police officers. He also stated his belief that an independent Scotland would be at less risk from terrorism, said Labour’s immigration system was a “mess”, and labelled ID cards a “waste of money”.

Mr Burnett said:

“UK immigration policy is a mess. Within that mess, the particular needs of Scotland have been a low priority. An independent Scotland could do much better delivering well managed immigration to benefit our industry, agriculture, services, and commitment to human rights drawing on our reputation for excellent race relations.

“I believe the identity cards idea sprung up out of the need to be seen to be doing something. What a waste of money. Even as the counter terrorism boss I couldn’t’ see any benefit and a whole lot of negatives. The SNP has the right idea. Dump it and spend it on real needs.

“The terrorism threat is severe in the UK. A huge issue in causing that threat is UK foreign policy and our backing for wars. The SNP’s opposition to these ill-considered foreign follies is well documented. An independent Scotland with its own foreign policies could give a much improved guarantee of safety for us all.

“While we need an independent Scotland, we currently also need more SNP MPs to challenge future mad ideas. This is why we need Osama Saeed at Westminster.”

A new campaign leaflet was also unveiled at Glasgow's central station.

The Labour government recently announced plans which excluded Glasgow in favour of including more English cities.

Osama Saeed commented:

"The doors haven't closed on this and the train certainly hasn't left the station. Glasgow can still be included but we need to replace Glasgow's do nothing Labour MPs with local SNP champions to make this happen.

"There has to be a vigorous campaign for this city and we will lead on this in Parliament."

[ENDS]

Notes

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