Summary
With Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn launching their new, left-wing party, why is it that young Scots feel so disenfranchised from Labour? Four young, left-wing Scots, told us why Labour isn't on next years Scottish Election ballot for them.
A quick answer: a member of the Scottish Socialist Youth believes that Kier Starmer “couldn’t punch himself out of a wet paper bag if you gave him a head start”, with other respondents being similarly unimpressed by Labour and its Scottish branch.
Polls back in April showed that Scottish Labour is set to win only 14 seats in the next Holyrood election, less than the SNP, Tories, and the Scottish Greens.
Polling from March showed that 46 per cent of 16-24-year-olds in Scotland viewed Labour unfavourably, with 37 per cent seeing Anas Sarwar unfavourably.
And with the recent departure of Zarah Sultana from the Labour Party this week, it’s clear that the current governing party of the UK is not keeping the engagement it received a year ago. The official launch of Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn’s new party this week is damming evidence that Labour is not providing the UK’s youth with adequate representation.
Yet, 90 per cent of under-30s voted for a left-leaning party at the last Scottish elections. So, who are the young, left-wing Scots voting for? And why is it not Scottish Labour?
Four young Scottish voters explained why Scottish Labour won’t be on their ballot next year. These interviews took place prior to Sultana’s departure from the Labour Party and the launch of her and Corbyn’s new party.
Adam Johnston, co-convener of the University of Stirling’s new Scottish Greens branch, is worried about the environment “being put on the back burner”, calling climate change “the issue of our age”.
On whether or not anyone but the Scottish Greens could deliver on this priority, Adam believes that “there will always be people in other parties that try” and acknowledged that the Scottish Government providing free bus travel for Scots under 22 was a “fantastic policy”.
However, he would not trust Scottish Labour to deliver on the issue of climate change.
“If they go by UK policy, they’ll deliver absolutely nothing. They brought up carbon emissions but just created GB Energy. What does GB Energy even do? It’s just another regulatory body”.
On if Scottish Labour could ever win him over, Adam believes that he is “probably a lost cause for them”, but if they do want to win the youth vote, they need to be “actually standing up for working people” and stop “promoting conservative policies from Westminster”.
Iris Duane, Scottish Green Party activist at the University of Glasgow, shares this concern, and her priority when choosing a party is “making sure that they’re keeping the working people of Scotland at their heart”.
Prioritising representing the working class, Scottish Labour is not an option in Iris’s eyes, with Anas Sarwar rejecting the idea of a wealth tax in Scotland.
“They’re much more right-wing, we’ve seen what they’re doing in England, taking away disability payments, we’re seeing the largest cuts since 2015, since David Cameron’s government.
“After Theresa May, Boris Johnson, and Rishi Sunak, Labour is somehow cutting more”.
She blames this for Scottish Labour’s predicted decline.
“I think they’ve abandoned their traditional base and they’re trying to go as right-wing as possible to chase Reform and the Tories, and many working people are seeing through that.
“But this is also coming with the rise of the populist right, which will have an impact. I want to say that it’s deserved, but it’s important that other parties at the table are doing as much as they can to reduce the influence of the far-right”.
On whether she could ever vote for Scottish Labour, Iris said:
“Honestly, I don’t see an eventuality where I would ever do so; they’ve clearly proven that their allegiances don’t lie with the working people of Scotland.
“It would certainly benefit them if they remembered that they’re supposed to be representing the working people of Scotland; they’ve failed at that over the years, they’re just a second Conservative Party. It’s simply not good enough”.
Alan Rubin Castejon, a member of the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association (GUSNA), said that nationalism remains an issue.
“I would write them off because I’m fully committed to an independent Scotland in the EU, which isn’t something that Scottish Labour is offering or has ever offered.
“The respect for a right to self-determination is a key issue to a lot of voters.”
However, Alan doesn’t believe that Scottish Labour being a unionist party is the only reason for its failure among young people, and that “disillusionment” is to blame.
“I cannot vote for a party that’s going to dilly-dally all the time.
“Their lack of integrity is utterly baffling.”
“I’d appreciate a more steady line, even if it was one that I didn’t agree with, if they could just offer a line and stick to it.”
Labour MPs in Glasgow have also been an issue for Alan.
“We can see, all our MPs in Glasgow are Labour now, and we can see on voting records what decisions they’re making.
“They’re barely contesting the government, and they’re barely active in their constituencies.”
Owen Maitland, national chairperson of the Scottish Socialist Youth (SSY), finds himself asking: “Is the cruelty the point?” in response to the Labour government’s actions.
There are three big issues that matter to Owen when choosing who to vote for: “Foreign policy, economic policy, and the stance on independence”. Labour doesn’t tick these boxes.
“Ever since 2023 when Keir Starmer said that Israel had the right to cut Gaza’s water and electricity supply, Labour’s shown its true colours on Palestine”.
Owen says that, as well as “the climate, human rights issues like Palestine and trans rights”, young people are looking for “an actual strong opposition to the far right”, which Labour is not delivering.
“They’re looking at renationalising steel, and they’re only doing that because Nigel Farage, of all people, has outflanked them on it. How is Reform outflanking a Labour government on renationalisation?”
“Last year, Anas Sarwar was in parliament saying, ‘read my lips, no austerity under Labour’, and now it’s austerity under a different name”
Owen says he sees this in Glasgow.
“The SSY runs a free food kitchen called The People’s Kitchen, we provide free food that’s not means-tested. And we’re seeing through that that it’s not just homeless people turning up, it’s the working poor, and that the Labour government, in a lot of ways, are making their lives worse”
Obviously, these voters are all members of political organisations, but they all believe that young people are political, even if not in the traditional sense.
But overall, they all agree that Scottish Labour will not act in their interests, whether that’s the environment, standing up for working people, or Palestine, and whilst independence plays a role, young Scots’ lack of faith in Scottish Labour is a bigger issue than their unionist stance.
Featured Image Credit: SW1APolitico, Wikimedia Commons
4th year Politics and Journalism student.
Secretary for Brig
The Herald Student Press Awards Columnist Of The Year 2024 (which sorry i’m still not over)
