Angela Rayner labels SNP ‘distracted and tired’ as she campaigns in Scotland

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has said the SNP-led Scottish Government is “distracted and tired” ahead of a visit north of the border.

She will join Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar in East Lothian on Friday.

Rayner is aiming to promote the party’s “new deal for working people”, which would bring in changes to employment law if Labour wins power at Westminster.

The party has pledged to ban exploitative zero-hours contracts as well as fire-and-rehire practices, and abolish anti-union laws passed by the Conservatives.

Last year, Rayner told the Labour conference she would personally usher in the changes within the first 100 days of her party’s government.

Ahead of the visit, she said: “The road to a Labour government runs through Scotland.

“The distracted and tired SNP has run out of road and offers Scotland nothing other than more division and decline.

“The SNP and the Tories want you to think that this is as good as it gets – they are wrong.

“With a Labour government, Scotland will have its voice heard and workers will get the transformative new deal for working people that will deliver for thousands of workers.”

Sarwar stressed the importance Scottish MPs would have on a Labour government in Westminster.

He said: “Every day more and more Scots are growing tired with the SNP’s politics of division.

“It is clear for all to see that Scotland is crying out for change and that only Labour can deliver it.

“The general election will give Scotland the chance to lead the way in booting out the rotten Tory government and maximising Scotland’s influence at the heart of government.”

David Linden MP, the SNP’s social justice spokesperson, said Rayner has a “brass neck” arriving in Scotland just days after her party’s bankers’ bonus U-turn.

Linden said: “Angela Rayner really does have a brass neck arriving in a constituency where the callous two-child cap impacts 1,600 children just days after U-turning on Labour’s bankers’ bonus policy.

“Voters will rightly ask Labour’s deputy leader: does her party now prioritise the rich over those less fortunate?

“Clearly, all it took was a quick jaunt to Davos with Westminster’s wealthy elite for the Labour party to abandon their principles once again.

“Sir Keir Starmer is right when he say’s his party has changed: they no longer represent the hard working people on these isles.

“Unlike Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party, the SNP will always stand up for Scotland and prioritise support for working families.

“These are our values and the SNP will always defend those values in the face of a Westminster system that does not work for Scotland.”