Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has promised a Labour Government will be achieved by his party making gains north of the border.
Sarwar said the “corrupt, lying, incompetent” Tories will be booted out of office by his party winning seats off the SNP.
However, the speech was silent on extra powers for Holyrood, an issue causing division in the party.
Opinion polls are showing a comfortable lead for Labour over the Tories, but any slippage could jeopardise a majority after the next general election.
Scottish Labour only won one of 59 seats three years ago and need to make sweeping gains if Starmer is to have a chance of toppling Liz Truss.
In a speech to Labour conference in Liverpool, Sarwar claimed: “Labour will win the next general election. And Scotland will deliver the seats to get us over the line.
“Scotland will elect Keir Starmer as its next Prime Minister. Because only Labour can replace the Tories and change lives for the better.”
A party source claimed Labour are hopeful of winning up to 15 seats in Scotland.
This would require a marked improvement on past Westminster elections.
The party was routed in 2015 after winning one seat, jumped to seven two years later and fell back to one in 2019.
Winning 15 seats could only be achieved if Labour takes relatively safe seats from the SNP.
A key plank of Labour’s strategy will be to rule out any deals with the SNP after the election.
Ambivalence on the issues is perceived to have cost Labour votes in England in previous elections.
Sarwar said: “Crucially in Scotland and across the United Kingdom there is a majority to boot the Tories out of Downing Street.
“Our job is to build a campaign and the coalition to deliver that.
“Not a coalition of political parties. Let me be clear, no ifs, no buts, no deals with the SNP.”
He also cast his party as forcing the UK and Scottish Governments to back centre-left policies during the cost of living crisis:
“Labour called for energy price rises to be cancelled. Our opponents called for business as usual. Until they couldn't.
“Labour called for a windfall tax for the oil giants. The SNP sided with the Tories and refused to vote for it. Until they backtracked.”
On the Scottish Government belatedly backing a rent freeze, he said:
“When Scottish Labour called for a rent freeze, the SNP and the Greens called it ‘unworkable’. Until they gave in and introduced it.
“If this is what we can achieve from opposition, just imagine what we will do in Government.”
He said of the Tories: “Liz Truss is a right wing, ideological Tory. She is more dangerous than Margaret Thatcher.
“Let's be clear this a corrupt, lying, incompetent, failing, cheating, economically illiterate, morally bankrupt shower. And the sooner we boot them out the better.”
Despite Scottish Labour backing extra powers for Holyrood, there no was reference to the issue in Sarwar’s speech.
Splits emerged earlier in the day on the focus Labour should place on beefing up the Parliament’s powers
Starmer is considering sweeping reforms for the whole of the UK, but Labour MSP Katy Clark called for the next stage of Scottish devolution to be prioritised.
She said: “I voted No [in 2014] on the basis that I wanted to see significant further powers transferred to Scotland and I believe there is a majority in favour of those kinds of proposals. Labour at a UK level needs to recognise that and ensure that this is given top priority when the next Labour Government is elected.
“The Scottish Labour party is very clear that, if Labour is elected at a UK level, then the proposals that come from the Scottish Labour party have to be implemented and have to be implemented as soon as possible.”
But former Scottish Labour leaders Lord McConnell and Jim Murphy were cool on more powers during a fringe debate.
McConnell, Labour First Minister between 2001 and 2007, said: “We've seen an endless debate really since 2007 about more powers, which I think a blind alley.
“I think the real challenge is 'how do you change the way the British state works’ to reflect the fact that the United Kingdom is now a multinational state with different levels of legislative power in different places.
He added: “We need to be very careful that we just don't continue with an attempt to find a common ground on powers that is inconsistent.”
Murphy, who briefly led the party after the 2014 referendum, said: “My take is that the circular conversation about powers is an attempt to fix a political problem. Further powers are an important part of the political project [but] they are not an alternative.
“Often when I listen to the Scottish Labour party talking about powers, it's 'this is the one thing we believe in'.”
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