Nicola Sturgeon: SNP offers '˜new beginning' for Glasgow

Nicola Sturgeon has said tomorrow's council election was an opportunity for a 'new beginning' for Glasgow as the SNP aims to win power in Scotland's largest city for the first time.

Nicola Sturgeon and SNP group leader Susan Aitken (right) met residents in Toryglen ahead of tomorrow's local authority elections, with the SNP confident of taking power in Glasgow for the first time. Picture: John Devlin/TSPL

The First Minister was campaigning in Toryglen this evening with party members confident of finally ending Labour’s 36 years of continuous rule.

She was joined in the southside district of Toryglen by Susan Aitken, who hopes to replace Frank McAveety as leader of Glasgow City Council.

Although opinion polls predict a strong showing for the SNP, Sturgeon told The Scotsman the party was taking nothing for granted, and urged voters in the city to vote for change.

“I live in Glasgow, I represent a constituency in Glasgow, and I think the city council under Labour has lost its way and lacks ambition,” she said. “It lacks a focus on the issues that really matter to people. It’s very closed and lacks transparency.

“There’s an opportunity to turbocharge Glasgow for the next few years - but that’s up to the voters.”

Asked if the SNP could win an outright majority of councillors, the First Minister said: “If you had told me 10 years ago that one day the SNP would have every constituency MP and MSP in the city, I wouldn’t have believed it. That tells you how much of a sea change there’s been in Glasgow. But every election must be won on its own merits.

“Tomorrow is the opportunity to vote for a new beginning and to put in the city chambers a new, dynamic and ambitious leadership.”