New Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn set out his vision for Scotland and the UK as he called for the “sunshine of socialism” to break through against the “narrow, nasty” politics of David Cameron’s Conservatives.
As he made his first speech to the Scottish Labour Party conference in Perth, he said the “radical tradition that has always been alive in Scotland” had inspired him throughout his political career.
With the conference to debate the controversial issue of Trident – something Labour’s UK conference did not do – the veteran left-winger urged party members to decide what position to take “for the good of Scotland”.
Mr Corbyn spoke of his “vision for a more equal Scotland and a more equal Britain”.
With Holyrood elections due to take place in just over six months’ time, he said winning in Scotland next May would be a “priority”.
Those elections come after Scottish Labour was all but wiped out at Westminster in this year’s general election as an SNP landslide struck north of the border.
Mr Corbyn told the conference: “It wasn’t just people across Scotland who said that Labour needed to change in May. It was people across the length and breadth of Britain.”
Labour lost some “great colleagues” in that defeat, he said.
The “stark message” from voters in Scotland contained a lesson for Labour across the UK, Mr Corbyn said, adding: “Our party needs to reach out more effectively to people who feel that politics is too distant, that’s alien from their lives.”
He said: “You don’t need to be 500 miles away from Westminster to feel that.
“Many people in London or Liverpool or Leeds feel as alienated and distant from the political class as many people here in Scotland.”
He cited Keir Hardie, his party’s “great founder” who was born in Scotland, as being the “emblem of what our Labour Party is about”.
He said: “Our mission now is the same as that which he laid out just 21 years into the Labour Party’s life when he said that the movement would not rest until ‘the sunshine of socialism and human freedom break forth upon our land’.
“‘The sunshine of socialism, friends. I couldn’t think of a better prescription for what our country needs to break through the narrow, nasty, divisive politics of the Conservatives.”
For full coverage of the conference, see Saturday’s Courier or try our digital edition.