Keir Starmer urges SNP voters to 'trust Labour' to deliver change for UK in wake of Nicola Sturgeon's resignation

Sir Keir Starmer has urged SNP voters to place their trust and faith in Labour at the next general election in the wake of Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation.

In a pitch to past Labour voters who have switched to the SNP, the UK Labour leader said his party would be the one to deliver “change and hope”.

Telling the Scottish Labour party conference that the “tide is turning” on the SNP in the wake of Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation, he said it was time for Labour to “earn” the faith of those he said would be “looking again at the future of Scotland with fresh eyes.”

“We have to meet their gaze with confidence,” he said.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer shake hands on the third day of the Scottish Labour Party Conference at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh

Calling on delegates to reach out across the political divide and try to convince SNP voters to return to Labour, Sir Keir urged SNP voters to “trust in us”.

He said: “Let’s say we know that Scotland needs change. We know our economy needs to work better for working people, that our public services need to be fixed, that climate change needs bold action, and that our political system needs a total overhaul, with communities finally in the driving seat.

"None of this, we believe, can be achieved through more division.

"But if you place your faith in Labour, this is the change we offer to you, to Scotland and Britain.”

The UK Labour leader told delegates there is a “growing impatience for change” amid the “chaos” of the SNP and Conservative rule in Holyrood and Westminster.

However he also warned Scottish Labour that their history of if success under Tony Blair and others while in government was not enough, stating the party must run “on the change we offer Scotland now”.

Turning to voters who have “given on Labour directly” and those who have “given up on Britain”, Sir Keir made a direct appeal to their desire for “change and hope”, adding the future of the union rests “on the solidarity of working people, pushing Britain forward, in search of that ordinary hope.”

He said: “We need to raise our sights, create a collective sense of mission across all our home nations. It’s the only way to get that sense of hope, of possibility, of solidarity, back. But we can’t delude ourselves.

"Change must be credible, working people have had enough false promises to last a lifetime, and that means the politics of ordinary hope will be hard.

"Hard because of the damage the Tories have done to Britain, hard because of the damage the SNP have done to Scotland.

"Hard, because of the damage they’ve both done, deliberately, to the prospects of our future together.”

Sir Keir paid tribute to Ms Sturgeon, stating her service as First Minister was a “political achievement that must be acknowledged”.

He said: “One thing we must always be clear about, wherever you stand on the constitutional question, we must respect those beliefs as a sincere desire to make the future better for Scotland.

"The First Minister was sincere about that and it shaped her service to this nation.”

However, the UK Labour leader also took aim at Ms Sturgeon’s record as First Minister, stating her party could not give the “Tories any lectures on political responsibility”.

He argued the SNP have “not truly invested in Scotland’s success”, claiming achievements within the union were met with “gritted teeth and viewed as a “roadblock” to independence.

The Labour leader repeated his commitment to not doing any type of deal with the SNP after the next general election, stating that “phony offers of support can end now”.

"The unspoken political bond between the SNP and the Tories, the shared investment in division, that ends now.”

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