Anas Sarwar has branded the leader of Glasgow City Council “a puppet of Nicola Sturgeon” as he launched Labour’s local election campaign today.
The party lost control of Scotland’s largest local authority in 2017 to a minority Nationalist administration led by Susan Aitken.
But the city has in recent years been rocked by strikes by refuse collectors and wider arguments over cuts to council budgets imposed by the Scottish Government.
Sarwar – a Glasgow MSP – has been a persistent critic of the SNP-run council – and insists Labour is now in the running to regain control of the City Chambers.
He is attempting to win back Labour voters across Scotland with a manifesto that includes plans to cap bus fares and halve rail fares.
(Image: PA)
Labour is calling for the cost of local bus journeys to be capped at no more than £1.80 using long-awaited powers for councils to regulate and run local buses.
Sarwar also wants the SNP government to use their new role as the owner of ScotRail to halve train fares for three months.
Asked how confident he was in winning back Glasgow, the party leader said: “I want us to go into the election with the intention of winning. I want us to win Labour councils.
“I think if you look at the last five years at what’s happened at Glasgow City Council you can see the difference Labour makes.
“Anyone can see how neglected it’s been, anyone who looks at the state of our roads, our cleansing, can see the difference a Labour council makes.
“To be blunt about it – the job of the leader of Glasgow City Council isn’t to be a Nicola Sturgeon puppet that is told what they are to do.
“The job is to stand up and fight for the city – not to stand up and fight for the SNP.”
Sarwar also repeated his opposition to Labour councillors forming coalitions with other parties after next month’s election.
A decision on whether such deals will be banned falls to Labour’s Scottish executive committee – but the party leader was clear he was against coalitions.
“I have made my view very clear,” he said.
He added: “I think this is an opportunity to do local government differently. I think both the SNP are bad for our country.
“I think they are both bad for our local communities. So lets not have formal coalitions with wither.
“Lets instead have local authorities that reinvigorate local democracy and do what is right for local communities and not the party political system.”
SNP MSP Kaukab Stewart said: “Glasgow knows all too well about the legacy Labour left in the city – the People’s Palace left in a state of disrepair and women forced to fight for equal pay thanks to the shameful inaction of the previous Labour administration.
“Labour have absolutely no credibility in Glasgow.
“It speaks to the Labour Party’s ridiculous self-entitlement to think they could run Glasgow forever. Unless they accept their own shameful failings they will continue their slide into even further irrelevance.”
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