Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to “rebuild and repair” Kirkcaldy if he becomes the next prime minister.
The Labour leader insisted victory in places like the Lang Toun is “very important to me personally” as well as his party’s hopes of forming a government.
“It’s not just the mathematics of the make up of Parliament down in Westminster, it’s also that I want to be the prime minister for the whole of the UK,” he said.
Labour set for Fife gains
It comes as polling revealed Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath – Gordon Brown’s former Westminster seat – is projected to turn red again.
Dunfermline and West Fife could also shift to Labour in a tight contest with the SNP, according to YouGov research.
Speaking exclusively to The Courier, Sir Keir set out what he would do for people in Kirkcaldy if he is handed the keys to 10 Downing Street.
He said: “I would rebuild, repair and seize the opportunities for the future.
“Obviously the immediate things are the cost of living crisis.
“In Kirkcaldy, there will be no end of people sitting down today worrying about whether they can pay their bills.
“We absolutely have to address that. Energy bills may have gone down a little bit but they are still far, far too high.
Britain has huge potential and promise.
Nowhere do I see that more than in our brilliant businesses, like those I visited today in Kirkcaldy.
Labour will revitalise our high streets and make Britain the best place to start and grow a business. pic.twitter.com/DIZ4IGZvda
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) May 25, 2023
“People are also worried about the health service.
“There will be immediate things for families here that need to be addressed by an incoming Labour government.
“But there’s much more than that because what an incoming Labour government brings is the opportunity for the next generation of jobs to be here – high paid, skilled jobs in this area.”
Revitalising high streets
Sir Keir was speaking on a visit with Labour candidate Wilma Brown to the Cupcake Coffee Box, directly opposite the constituency office of current Alba MP Neale Hanvey.
The area has been a key battleground between Labour and the SNP since Gordon Brown stepped down in 2015.
Setting out how he would “revitalise” high streets like Kirkcaldy’s, Sir Keir said: “We know we’ve got to do the repair work but we’ve also got a very positive story to tell, a very positive case, about what the future can hold.
“And reviving the sense that you don’t need to get out to get on.
“You can have that well-paid, skilled job where you are in your local area without having to leave and go somewhere else.”
‘Visionless nonsense’
But Mr Hanvey accused Sir Keir of using “Tory-light word salad”.
“This visionless nonsense might work in North London, but we’ve heard it all before from UK Labour,” he said.
“He talks of jobs and opportunity, but it’s Westminster policies under successive Tory and Labour administrations that decimated Scotland’s industry and locked our people in poverty throughout my lifetime.
“He claims he’ll rebuild and repair, but where is he going to get the funds to do so?
“If it’s from the £80 billion of oil and gas revenue flowing into the Treasury or the growing billions from Scotland’s renewables, then he needs to explain why the people of Scotland need a knight of the British Realm to give us crumbs from the table when we are more than capable of choosing where to invest our wealth as an independent country.”