Formal introduction to conference seen as put-down
Outside taunts from SNP after new Scots Labour leader delivers debut speech
Published:
Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray was taunted by the SNP yesterday after he delivered his debut speech to the UK party’s annual conference.
Mr Gray, the third Scottish Labour leader in as many years to address the conference, used the event to mount a stinging attack on the SNP.
But the Nationalists seized on the term used by Scottish Secretary Des Browne in introducing Mr Gray to the conference – “leader of Labour in the Scottish Parliament” – to suggest this was a put-down. That description is the formal job description of the post he was elected to last week.
Mr Gray has argued an election process which involved MPs, unions, and Labour Party members, has given him a wider mandate.
But Aberdeen North SNP MSP Brian Adam said: “It seems Des Browne has reminded Iain Gray that his mandate runs no further than Labour MSPs.
“The low turnout and poor response shows how little the Scottish Parliament and Scotland’s future means to Labour in Manchester.”
In his conference speech Mr Gray urged Labour to get behind Gordon Brown and stand “shoulder to shoulder” with him to take the fight to the SNP in Scotland.
In his first keynote speech, he said Labour is now the only “force for fairness” in Scottish politics and accused the nationalists of being prepared to ditch every manifesto promise to students, the elderly and parents and had just delivered on two tax cuts – “stripping over half a billion pounds out of the Scottish budget”.
He accused the SNP of “working actively” to see David Cameron become the next prime minister, just as they had let the Tories take power under Margaret Thatcher in 1979.
He said being in opposition in Scotland hurts “because we have to watch an SNP administration cutting services, failing to invest in our prosperity, and using the parliament we worked so hard for – not as the powerful instrument of social progress it is, but as a platform for separatist posturing”.
Mr Gray also attacked newly-elected Liberal Democrat Scottish leader Tavish Scott’s plan to reduce income tax by 2p in Scotland at a cost of £800million in cuts in spending north of the border. He said it was time for Labour to unite and “face outwards” and “hold our nerve and hold our focus on the cost of living, access to housing, jobs, training, skills, schools and hospitals”. He pledged that in Glenrothes, where polls predict Labour faces electoral disaster in a by-election expected in November, he would do “everything in my power” to ensure a Labour victory.
Kevin Hutchens, a member of West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine executive, said it was “an excellent speech” and welcomed Mr Gray’s support for Mr Brown.
A spokesman for the Scottish Labour Party said later: “The fact that the only thing the SNP can say is that Iain was correctly introduced is an indication of how well-received his speech was.”
In his speech Mr Gray described himself as “the new leader of Labour in the Scottish Parliament”.
