The SNP losing power in Glasgow would be the “best thing” for the city after next month’s council elections, Anas Sarwar has claimed.
The Scottish Labour leader launched his party’s dedicated manifesto for the country’s largest local authority today.
The SNP won power at Glasgow City Chambers for the first time in 2017 and formed a minority administration led by Susan Aitken.
Sarwar insisted “the best thing” that could happen for Glasgow is “that we get rid” of the Aitken in the vote on May 5.
The SNP council leader has said she would be open to working in coalition with Scottish Labour should no majority emerge in the poll.
But Sarwar made it clear that he would not budge on his reluctance to form a coalition with either the SNP or the Tories in any council area.
He said: “We want to elect as many Labour councillors as possible and as many Labour councils as possible, and why would we do a deal with two political parties that are bad for our city?
“Both are damaging our city, both are taking our city backwards.”
The party’s manifesto for Glasgow pledges to prioritise dealing with the cleansing issues, including the creation of 250 new jobs in cleansing services.
The SNP administration has come under fire for problems including fly-tipping, overflowing bins and reports of rats throughout the city.
Councillor Malcolm Cunning, leader of the Labour group in Glasgow, said: “Over the past five years, under the current SNP administration, 269 posts have been lost within cleansing and we need to get as many as possible back into place to actually be lifting the bins, to be actually cleaning the streets.
“That’s the only way to make an improvement.”
When asked if the pandemic could be blamed for such issues around the city, Cunning added: “The pandemic has brought things to a head. The pandemic is not the underlying cause.
“The underlying cause is 10 years – in fact, more – of consistent cuts to Glasgow’s budget and local authority budgets across Scotland, where somewhere between £300 million and £350 million has been robbed.”
Labour will also aim to encourage more businesses into Glasgow’s high streets, amid a challenging time for physical stores in the aftermath of coronavirus lockdowns.
Cunning pointed to cities such as Leeds and Manchester, saying they have seen recovery in their high streets at a faster rate than Glasgow.
“What we don’t need are more and more working parties,” he said. “What we need are things getting done.”
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here.
