SCOTTISH party leaders are making their final pushes to secure votes ahead of this week’s general election.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has said today that the country has an opportunity to “put an end to Tory economic misery and choose change.”
He said: “Working people have been forced to pay the price for Tory failure for too long, but Labour has a plan to stop the chaos and kickstart a decade of national renewal.
“A Labour government will be firmly on the side of working people — creating jobs, delivering growth, boosting pay and tackling insecure work.
“Change is within touching distance, but we only get change by voting for it.
“Scotland cannot afford another five years of Tory incompetence, sleaze and failure — we need to make sure we take this opportunity to deliver change.
“Together, we can boot the Tories out of office and elect a Labour government that will deliver quality jobs in every part of Scotland.”
SNP leader John Swinney said yesterday that his party offered the people of Scotland “hope for a better future.”
The First Minister said that while the election result in England is “an inevitability,” the result in Scotland “is on a knife-edge,” with many seats too close to call between the SNP and Labour.
He said: “The next UK Labour government plans to impose £18 billion of cuts to public spending — after years of austerity, Brexit and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
“If you want to reject more austerity cuts from Westminster and ensure that decisions about Scotland are made in Scotland, then you’ve got to vote SNP.
“Only the SNP will hold Labour to account on more cuts and the real threat of NHS privatisation.
“The SNP offers Scotland the hope of a better future — but you have to vote for it.”
Mr Swinney told Sky News that there was “nothing that can be done” about postal votes that have not yet arrived for voters who are now overseas.
He said he had “made it very clear about the fact some people will be disenfranchised” if their postal votes cannot be filled out and returned on time.
Mr Swinney said there had been “significant reports of people who were trying to vote by post who had applied properly for a postal vote before the deadline of June 19.”
