Scottish election 2021: Anas Sarwar says Scotland must move on from 'old politics'

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said Scotland deserves better than the "old politics" of division as he unveiled his party's election manifesto.

He said his party's national recovery plan would build a "fairer and stronger Scotland" after the Covid pandemic.

Mr Sarwar said the next parliament had to focus on "what unites us, not what divides us".

And he said the country's political debate had to move on from "re-running old arguments" about independence.

Labour's national recovery plan is divided into five parts, each of which Mr Sarwar said, was tailored to help Scotland recover from the Covid crisis.

They are:

• Jobs recovery: Guaranteeing a job for every young Scot and investing in training and providing skills for people across the country

• NHS recovery: Funding the NHS to get cancer treatment back on track, improving mental health, and raising carers' pay immediately to £12 per hour

• Education recovery: Developing a comeback plan for every pupil and a personal tutoring programme alongside investment in schools and ensuring IT support in every primary and secondary school

• Climate recovery: Investing in green jobs, achieving net zero emissions by 2045 and seizing Scotland's hosting of COP26 to champion an ambitious climate justice plan

• Community recovery: Helping high streets recover with a £75 prepaid card for every adult in the country, and investing in local areas to make communities safer and stronger

Mr Sarwar said the policies were designed to "speak to 100% of people in Scotland, not just the 50% the SNP and the Tories want to speak to".

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The Scottish Labour leader said 10,000 families across Scotland were coming to terms with the death of a loved one from Covid, with many more worried about their cancer diagnosis, their children's mental health, or whether they have a job to go back to.

Mr Sarwar said: "The challenges ahead of us are huge and they require us to work together, and the truth is that the politics of division has only delivered more poverty and greater inequality.

"We can't afford our politics to go on like this for the next five years. I'm calling time on the old politics. Scotland deserves better.

"Just imagine what we could achieve if we come together and focus on what unites us, not what divides us."

After only eight weeks in charge of Scottish Labour, Anas Sarwar is achieving favourable personal ratings in opinion polls.

Translating at least some of that into actual votes for a party that has suffered long term decline is his aim at this election.

He's optimistic about making progress but realistic about how much is possible.

Mr Sarwar wants to challenge the Scottish Conservatives for second place and in doing so, narrow the gap with the SNP.

That means today's manifesto is not one for government but one for influence.

Policies like free school meals, doubling the child payment to £20, expanding free childcare have already been adopted by the SNP. Labour wants to push them to go further, faster.

The big dividing line between these two parties remains the constitution. While the SNP favours independence and another referendum, Labour does not.

That despite the trade union movement - from which Labour first emerged - confirming its view this week that if a majority of MSPs back indyref2, it should happen.

SCOTLAND'S ELECTION: THE BASICS

What's happening? On 6 May, people across Scotland will vote to elect 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). The party that wins the most seats will form the government. Find out more here.

What powers do they have? MSPs pass laws on aspects of life in Scotland such as health, education and transport - and have some powers over tax and welfare benefits.

Labour opposes Scottish independence and a second referendum, with the manifesto saying that the last thing the country needed was "more constitutional turmoil and economic instability".

The party said it would not back a referendum over the next five-year parliamentary term, but said the UK needed to be "democratically and economically renewed".

It stated: "The United Kingdom needs to work for all parts of our country and, at present, it does not.

"We believe a democratically and economically renewed Scotland is stronger within a democratically and economically renewed United Kingdom."

The manifesto also proposed "a new settlement" for local government, with more powers pushed out to councils and less centralisation at Holyrood.

The party's other key policies ahead of the election include working towards a Minimum Income Standard to help end poverty, and launching the Great Scottish Staycation which would offer third-night free accommodation to support the tourism industry.

It also pledged to increase free childcare to 50 hours a week for every child, which the party said was crucial in helping to tackle the "national scandal" of child poverty, and boosting the post-pandemic economic recovery by enabling more parents to return to work.

The increase in free childcare would begin by targeting the most vulnerable one and two-year-olds, and would then expand every year over the next five years as capacity is increased, Labour said.

Labour finished third behind the SNP and Conservatives in the last election in 2016, with Mr Sarwar succeeding Richard Leonard as party leader in February.

SNP deputy leader Keith Brown said Labour's opposition to a referendum was "undemocratic", and predicted that the party's "terminal decline in Scotland will only continue" unless it changed its stance.

The Scottish Conservatives have previously accused Labour of "sitting on the fence" on independence, and claimed that they were the only party who could stop the SNP winning a majority.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats also oppose a referendum, with leader Willie Rennie saying it would "drag the country down" during the worst health and economic crisis in a century.

But the pro-independence Scottish Greens want a new referendum within the next five years, and have insisted that there is "no contradiction" in pursuing both economic recovery and independence at the same time.

• BASICS: A really simple guide to the election

• POLICIES: Who should I vote for?

• CANDIDATES: Who can I vote for in my area?

• PODLITICAL: Updates from the campaign