Sorry Humza Yousaf, the force is with Labour, not the SNP or the Tories – Jackie Baillie

First Minister’s pledge to make Scotland ‘Tory free’ ignores the fact that Labour is neck and neck in the polls with the SNP in Scotland

Most films, like most election campaigns, have a catchy tagline capturing their essence. “The change Scotland needs” is Scottish Labour’s tagline as it sums up in a few words what we’re all about.

Humza Yousaf’s choice for the SNP is not so lucky. “Make Scotland Tory Free” doesn’t have a ring about it, unless you remember previous failed SNP campaign slogans like “Free by ‘93”. It doesn’t even say what the general election is going to be about. It sounds a bit desperate, a giveaway of a film with a thin plotline.

If Mr Yousaf thinks that a scrap between the SNP and Tories is what this year of change is all about then he’s in the wrong movie. This election is about change versus the status quo. It’s about Labour versus two tired governments. The status quo, on everything from an economy on the rocks to ferries that can’t leave the docks, is a disaster movie co-produced by the Tories and SNP.

A certain well-known campervan will struggle to play the role of Star Wars' Millennium Falcon for the SNP (Picture: Philippe Lopez/AFP via Getty Images)

Sarwar a bigger box office draw

The SNP script, one minute trying to tell Scots that Labour is irrelevant in the fight against the Tories and the next telling them that their vote is irrelevant because Labour is going to win anyway, just doesn’t stack up.

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Mr Yousaf is trying to pretend that the real battle doesn’t exist. The polls show Scottish Labour neck-and-neck with the SNP. Our leading man, Anas Sarwar, is outpolling the SNP leader at the box office. The political drama is all about the tight Labour-SNP race.

Labour aren’t taking anything for granted, we’re working hard to regain the trust of voters in the elections to come. But Mr Yousaf’s 2024 campaign looks like being this summer’s blockbuster flop. Just don’t try to watch it on your work iPad while abroad.

Voters and cinema-goers are tiring of repeats. Mr Yousaf doesn’t look any more capable of breathing new life into the SNP brand than the scriptwriters for the latest Ghostbusters reboot. That he’s even talking up a cameo role in the election campaign for Nicola Sturgeon makes the SNP look more like an Ealing comedy than something from the Marvel superhero stable.

Wishart doesn’t like his lines

Some props are absolute gifts, particularly if the SNP succeed in liberating the famous campervan of scandal from the police. They want to send it into action, like the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars, to save the faltering independence movement. “The force is with you” is a great movie line, but when the force is Police Scotland I’m not sure it’s a winner.

Even old stagehands like Pete Wishart are complaining about the lines they’ve been given and the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn isn’t sticking to the script. His much-mocked suggestion that the campervan should be gifted to the Tartan Army and used as a B&B in Germany for the Euros was a joke too far, the sign of a starlet beginning to believe his own publicity.

Voters want a real change from the worn-out franchises on offer. The Tories crashed the economy and the SNP have destroyed public services in Scotland. It’s time to bring down the curtain on them both and call in Labour to write the winning script for a double bill – this year and in 2026 when the Scottish Parliament elections come along.

Jackie Baillie MSP is Scottish Labour’s deputy leader