How Scottish Starmerites are wooing urban voters

Will Scotland’s central belt turn red? The last eighteen months of SNP chaos, from police probes to iPad scandals, coupled with an intense distrust of the Westminster government post-pandemic have left many Scottish voters politically homeless. Sir Keir Starmer is predicted a historic win and Labour is hoping Scotland will help the party achieve it.

Yet this general election lacks exciting, eye-catching leaders. And it’s certainly not Starmer’s personality that is compelling Scotland’s voters to switch sides. Spend a day out in Glasgow and the criticism of the party’s leader comes across. From his flip flopping over Gaza to his staid election debate performances, the Labour leader does not cut a popular figure. ‘I’m not absolutely convinced,’ says one sceptical constituent from his doorway.

Instead, it’s his dispatches of youthful, energetic Scottish Starmerites who are impressing on the doorsteps. ‘I don’t expect perfection, I just want improvement,’ one voter told Graeme Downie, Labour’s candidate for Dunfermline and Dollar, when he met him on the election trail.