Labour needs to do more for Scotland if they are to beat SNP in 2026 election

It took me a wee while to find any reference to Scotland in the Treasury’s statement on national growth and Heathrow’s third runway, but eventually there it was: “Glasgow City Region”. Three little words which, though welcome, seem somehow in their paucity to sum up the Labour government’s complete misunderstanding of what they have to do if their party is to displace the SNP in Scotland.

They have to start communicating exactly what it is they believe they are doing to make our lives better in Scotland. Don’t get me wrong, I am not about to have some frightening Damascene conversion to nationalism. Far from it.

It’s just that Labour claims to be the best hope we have, and they are blowing it. We all know that the funding settlement to the Scottish Government is the biggest in Holyrood’s quarter of a century, but just about every other statement made since the July election seems to undermine what had been a monumental shift towards Labour in the polls.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves hardly mentioned Scotland in her speech about boosting the economy (Picture: Peter Cziborra/WPA pool) | Getty Images

Labour’s missed opportunity

But what is the point of having turned the embarrassment of only one Scottish MP into holding 37 of the 57 seats at Westminster if you do not use that mandate positively? First, the Budget introduced a change to employers’ National Insurance which is threatening the livelihood of small businesses, charities, social care providers, GP practices and those they employ.

At the same time came changes to inheritance tax which farmers claim could make passing on their property to their children unaffordable.

Now, here was a major announcement – made first to business rather than parliament – outlining investment in areas like AI research and development, vital to the scientific and space sectors in which Edinburgh University is a world leader and in which our Scottish economy is increasingly involved. And yet no suggestion of anything for the capital.

Not a word of reassurance that this investment in growth will include, at some point, the reinstatement of the ‘exascale’ computer for Edinburgh University. I have asked, more than once, but still no answer. Such investment would put us in the driving seat of UK supercomputing, but alas still no public announcement.

Labour feeling like Tories

Instead of sending Rachel Reeves out to Oxfordshire and talking about Heathrow, get someone to come here and explain what the impact of air traffic expansion will be in Edinburgh. Tell us what we should do about the increase in the noise which already disrupts the lives and sleep of resident around the flightpath.

And when will be get an emissions management framework? Scotland is crying out for change.

Nearly two decades of SNP government has driven our NHS, education and local government to their knees. Perhaps at the next Holyrood election, instead of the political Newton’s cradle we are used to, we will actually have it all to play for.

If Labour continue to make the public feel the same way they did when the Conservatives were playing fast and loose with their Prime Ministers and Chancellors, why wouldn’t they look elsewhere? And I don’t mean Reform.

Politicians need to look outwards, stop talking to ourselves and remember our job is to deliver hope as well as stability. We all need to remember that.

Christine Jardine is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West