SNP is 'imploding' and running out of road, says Sir Keir Starmer

The UK Labour leader said the upcoming by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West will be crucial

Sir Keir Starmer has said the SNP is "imploding" and running out of road as he stepped up campaigning in Scotland ahead of a key by-election.

The UK Labour leader said the coming vote in Rutherglen and Hamilton West will be crucial for his party's bid to win power.

Elsewhere, he refused to back down over his controversial decision to retain the two-child benefit cap – but did suggest his party could seek to make it fairer.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

It comes after Sir Keir set out his vision for Scotland in an article in Tuesday’s Scotsman, in which he pledged to help make Scotland the “beating heart of a new Britain”. He also promised to smash the "class ceiling" that holds working people back.

Sir Keir held an "in conversation" event with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar at Rutherglen Town Hall on Tuesday morning. He said the coming by-election, which was called after constituents voted to sack Covid rule-breaking MP Maragaret Ferrier, "really matters".

He said: "And it is, of course, the first chance that we have had, Scottish Labour has had, to show the progress that we’ve made over the last few years, particularly under Anas’s leadership. When I think about where we were as a party when Anas took over to where we are now, it is like night and day, so this is our chance to show the progress that we have made and to expose the fact that the SNP have effectively run out of road.

"It’s not just that they’ve imploded, they’ve run out of road. That’s why they are getting personal, that’s why they are making the arguments they are. If they had a good sound argument, they wouldn’t be saying what they are saying."

He later added: "The SNP is imploding, it has run out of road, at long last its record is being looked at and people are saying ‘after that many years in office, is that it, is this the state of the country?’ And at that point they are saying, what is the alternative?"

Sir Keir said the by-election was a "stepping stone" to next year’s general election battle. He said a Labour Government would inherit a "very badly damaged economy", adding: "We are going to inherit a situation which is nothing like 1997."

Speaking to journalists, Sir Keir was repeatedly asked about his decision not to scrap the two-child benefit cap. He said Labour would not make "un-costed commitments" and pointed to the financial situation.

Divisions have emerged in the party north and south of the border over this and gender recognition reforms, but both Sir Keir and Mr Sarwar dismissed talk of splits. Mr Sarwar called it "nonsense".

On the two-child cap, Sir Keir said: "There is nothing that says an incoming Labour Government can't make sure that what policy we've got can operate more fairly. I think you would expect that from a Labour Government and you'd get that from a Labour Government. What you're not going to get is this false sense of a division between Anas and me on this."

Pushed on what this might mean, he said: "On any policy, there's always a question of whether it can operate more fairly, of course there is. That will be across the board. Nobody is saying no policy can change ever on anything."

Katy Loudon, the SNP candidate in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, said: “Starmer must think voters in Rutherglen and Hamilton West are buttoned up the back. Labour is engulfed in division and disharmony following his countless U-turns to mimic Tory policy, as anyone can see after a very, very short search. To suggest otherwise is absurd.”

She attacked Labour for “their backing of brutal Westminster austerity policies”, adding: “A vote for the SNP in this by-election is a vote to reject more of the same from a broken Westminster system which has completely failed households across Scotland.”