Jeremy Corbyn has again dismissed speculation of a formal anti-Tory pact at Westminster, after urging Scottish trade unionists to back Labour at the next election.
In a hastily arranged speech to the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) annual conference, the Labour leader said he believed the only deal his party would do was with the trade unions and with voters.
“Friends, let us remember that the only real progressive alliance is the Labour and trade union movement working together – it always has been and always will be,” he said. “The deal we’ll do is with the electorate, is to be a government for the many, not the few.”
Referring to early trade unionists as his party’s heroes, Corbyn won loud applause and cheers from STUC delegates in Aviemore as he listed a series of trade union-friendly policies that Labour would introduce were it to win power on 8 June.
Those included immediate abolition of the “vicious” Trade Union Act, which introduced restrictions on strike action, a crackdown on corporate tax avoidance, a new employees’ “right to own” for companies or factories facing closure, and a £10-an-hour minimum wage.
Further emphasising his party’s historic ties to the trade union movement, he added: “The Labour party will always cherish, sustain and protect our relationship with the trade union movement and the working people you represent. You are our DNA, you are our family, and we will never, ever apologise for the closeness of our relationship with you.”
He also took a coded dig at the Scottish National party, alluding to their pursuit of a fresh Scottish independence referendum and the argument of the SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, that only her party offers an effective opposition to the Conservative government at Westminster.
Sturgeon is addressing the STUC congress on Monday afternoon. Advance excerpts of the Scottish first minister’s speech say she will stick to her central general election theme, claiming the contest in Scotland will be a two-horse race between the SNP and the Tories.
Corbyn challenged that assertion. The SNP, he said, could not form a UK government because it could only ever win a small minority of Commons seats. “This is a general election, it is not a referendum, and only Labour can form a government and offer an alternative that will transform the lives of Scots,” he said.
“The truth is that the Tories and SNP are obsessed with their power struggles against Brussels and Westminster, when the energy should be used to change and transform our economy to ensure no one and no community is left behind.”
Corbyn’s overt wooing of STUC delegates follows a steady drift of Scottish trade union activists and members away from the Labour party towards the SNP that became particularly marked during the 2014 independence referendum campaign.
The STUC and its members were heavily courted by first Alex Salmond, the former SNP leader, and then Sturgeon, with greater success.
Trade union leaders estimate more than half of Scottish union members voted yes in 2014, with some senior union officials openly in favour of independence. Labour support in Scotland is now as low as 14% in some polls, with Corbyn’s personal popularity plummeting.
Sturgeon had been due to be the keynote speaker on Monday, followed by Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, who is due to speak on Wednesday. Corbyn’s address was only confirmed on Sunday, trailed as the launch of his Scottish general election campaign.
Sturgeon will be handing out a series of campaigning awards to union members from the platform before she speaks at the conference, as well as announcing an award of £500,000 to create a new “workplace equality fund” to combat race, gender and disability discrimination. Corbyn, in turn, was given a pen by STUC president Helen Connor after he spoke.
