Labour should be working with us to hold the Tories to account

We’ve had seven years of Tory austerity that has hammered working families, damaged public services, and targeted cuts at the poorest and most vulnerable.

That same Tory government now wants to take us off a hard Brexit cliff edge, and shut Scotland out of the EU negotiations, as if our interests simply don’t matter.

But instead of focusing their fire on the Tories, Labour spent the whole election campaign obsessed with the SNP, which activists rightly complain let the Tories off the hook and helped them win crucial votes.

This devastating verdict from Labour members themselves should make Kezia Dugdale, and others at the top of the party hierarchy, hang their heads in shame. Their Better Together fixation has made us all worse off, with Scotland now trapped under yet another Tory government.

Having run such a dismal election campaign, and having spent so long undermining Jeremy Corbyn, it is no surprise that Kezia Dugdale’s colleagues have the knives out, and want to replace her as leader – but Labour needs more than a change of face at the top.

In a hung parliament, with no party having won a majority of seats at Westminster, it is more important than ever that progressives work together to oppose the Tories and their right-wing agenda.

Instead of attacking the SNP, Labour should be working with us to hold the Tories to account, to oppose austerity, and to drive forward progressive policies

Instead of backing the Tories to the hilt on a hard Brexit that will damage the economy, slash jobs, squeeze living standards, and make the whole country poorer, Labour should work with the SNP to keep Scotland in the single market and to protect working people.

Instead of supporting Trident renewal, and letting the Tories waste billions on nuclear weapons of mass destruction, Labour should work with the SNP to scrap Trident and free up the money for our public services.

On so many issues Labour is still failing to stand up for Scotland’s national interests or the progressive choice.

It’s bizarre that they spend their time campaigning against the SNP, when many of the progressive policies they are only now beginning to support have already been delivered by the SNP in government – from free university tuition, to free prescriptions, free school meals, and real investment in our social housing, to name just a few.

So my message to Jeremy Corbyn and Kezia Dugdale as they embark on a summer ‘tour’ of Scotland is learn the lessons of the election campaign and recent years – stop attacking the SNP and start working with us.

Help us protect Scotland’s national interests and deliver progressive policies that make the country a fairer and more equal place.