Labour's 'arrogance' will not go down well with voters, says SNP by-election candidate

Katy Loudon has accused Labour of pushing an ‘empty message of change’

The SNP candidate in the crucial Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election has said Labour’s “arrogance and entitlement” will not go down well with voters.

Katy Loudon accused Labour of pushing an “empty message of change” and “flip-flopping” on key pledges.

In an exclusive interview with The Scotsman, she said Labour was desperate to keep the focus on Margaret Ferrier, the former SNP MP ousted by her constituents after breaking Covid rules, because it had nothing else to offer.

The SNP's Katy Loudon. Picture: John Devlin

"They think that they have this in the bag,” she said. “That does not go down very well with people, when you bring in a candidate to come round your doors and tell you that."

There is an expectation Labour will win the by-election, which is due to take place on October 5, amid ongoing difficulties for the SNP. Sir Keir Starmer’s party is building momentum across the UK ahead of next year’s general election. But Ms Loudon insisted she was “out to win”.

Elsewhere, she said Patrick Grady, the SNP MP who sexually harassed a staff member, would be welcome on the campaign trail. Mr Grady was seen campaigning in the South Lanarkshire constituency last month, sparking outrage from opposition politicians.

"Patrick made a terrible mistake,” Ms Loudon said. “There has been an investigation which our party supported, and that was the right thing for there to be that committee investigating."

Ms Loudon, a South Lanarkshire councillor and former primary school teacher, is up against Labour’s Michael Shanks in the contest to replace Ms Ferrier, who lost her job following a successful recall petition. She said she had not encountered any anger towards Ms Ferrier on the doorsteps, but rather “some sadness and disappointment about the situation”.

She was previously friendly with Ms Ferrier, but has not spoken to her. "She has blocked me on social media,” Ms Loudon said. “She hasn't spoken to me since."

Ms Loudon said Labour was "desperate to keep mentioning” Ms Ferrier on the doorstep. “This is all they've got at the moment,” she said. "They're going out with this empty message of change, but they're never able to expand on what that actually means, and that is cutting through."

She accused Labour of making a “series of U-turns” on key issues, such as the two-child benefit cap. "What they're doing is they're going round chapping people's doors, two, three times – three is the record,” she said. “I spoke to a woman in Blantyre who said she'd had them at her door three times, and they just wanted to talk about Margaret Ferrier.”

Ms Loudon said there was an “arrogance” to Labour. “There's an entitlement,” she said. “I've grown up in the west of Scotland, I've seen that all along. I pretty much had Labour representatives, whether that was councillors, MP, MSP for many, many years. And it does feel like it's going back to those days of entitlement."

When Sir Keir visits the constituency, Ms Loudon said “it's always about what Scotland or what Rutherglen can do for Starmer”. She added: “It's never about the other way round. We never hear any localised messaging.

"What we see is him coming up and then [Scottish Labour leader Anas] Sarwar having to desperately scrabble around to make sure their messages align, to make sure that they were sitting beside each other on the stage.”

Ms Loudon said the police investigation into the SNP’s finances was not an issue that was regularly raised on the doorstep. “When it does come up on the doors, it tends to be members who are asking about it, or supporters who are asking about it,” she said.

"As I've said in multiple interviews, I'm not going to say that it's not been a difficult few months for the party – of course it has. However, the vast, vast majority of people just now, the forefront of their mind is how they're going to support their family through what have been very challenging economic times for people."

Mr Grady’s appearance last month led to calls from Labour for the SNP to ban him from campaigning in the constituency. He apologised in Parliament last year after being found to have acted inappropriately towards a party staffer.

Asked if she would want Mr Grady to come and campaign again, Ms Loudon said: "I've been asked about various people – ‘would you be happy for this person to campaign, this person to campaign’. We welcome any activist who wants to come along, if they're coming along in their capacity as a member of the SNP."

Pressed on whether this included Mr Grady, she said: "Yes." Ms Loudon added: "My focus just now is on this campaign. I've never been involved in any of the party's disciplinary proceedings or sat on any of those committees. The party has taken action. A Westminster committee has taken action. If Patrick comes along here to campaign as an activist, then he would be doing so in that capacity."

She said the single most important issue in the constituency was the cost-of-living crisis. "That can mean different things for different people,” she said. “It can be about their energy bills, it can be about their food bills, it can be to do with their insurance.”

Ms Loudon said people were still reeling from the effects of Liz Truss’s mini-budget, a hard Brexit and austerity. Her first action if she became an MP would be to introduce a private members' Bill to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

Asked if she was fighting a lost cause, Ms Loudon said: "We're very busy just now. We're out chapping doors, and that's my priority 100 per cent at the moment."

She added: "I could spend the entire day reading thought pieces, polls, blogs, analysis. I'm not interested in that just now. We're out to win. I believe I'm the best candidate for the job and that's what we're concentrating on at the moment."

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “Anyone can see that the SNP has been taking voters across Scotland for granted for years, growing increasingly arrogant and out of touch. Scottish Labour is taking nothing for granted – we have been working around the clock to offer voters in Rutherglen and Hamilton West a fresh start.”