CORBYN: HARVIE SAYS LABOUR-TORY LINK BELIES SOCIAL JUSTICE RHETORIC
Patrick Harvie MSP, Co-convener of the Scottish Greens, says today's conference speech by Jeremy Corbyn, in which he highlighted rising inequality, belies Labour's track record and the years it spent working arm in arm with the Tories, who are destroying social justice.
More than one in ten of the Scottish Greens' 9,000 members are former Labour members. Opinion polls suggest Green MSPs will be elected from across Scotland's eight regions in May. The party's strong field of candidates includes MSPs Patrick Harvie, Alison Johnstone, John Finnie and John Wilson.
In recent months Scottish Green MSPs have achieved results in the Scottish Parliament including:
-Inclusion of rent controls in the forthcoming housing bill.
-Inclusion of right-to-buy for football fans in the community empowerment bill.
-Agreement that Energy Efficient Housing should be a National Infrastructure Priority.
Scottish Greens remain the only Holyrood party to fully oppose fracking and other forms of unconventional gas extraction, fully oppose the TTIP corporate power grab, and have urged the Scottish Government to be bolder on land reform.
Patrick Harvie, Scottish Green MSP for Glasgow, said:
"Rising inequality is precisely what we got last time Labour were in power, and while it's encouraging to see a serious attempt to reclaim Labour from decades of right wing domination, there is no sign yet that this will be a success. Mr Corbyn can't even secure the support of his own parliamentary party yet, and in Scotland far too many voters still remember the years they spent arm in arm with the Tories, who are now doing so much to destroy any chance of social justice.
"The Scottish Greens will continue holding the Scottish Government to account, but doing so constructively and without handing power over Scotland's economy and welfare state to Cameron, Osborne and co."