:00:16. > :00:24.thank you, and let me say first of all, today and in days to come, we
:00:25. > :00:29.will all weep tears of sorrow and grief at the loss of so many young
:00:30. > :00:36.lives in Manchester at the hands of terrorists, children, teenagers,
:00:37. > :00:44.young parents, and we also standing or today at the amazing work done by
:00:45. > :00:49.emergency services, from doctors and nurses, to the police, to the army,
:00:50. > :00:55.to the security services, the ordinary people of Manchester. Too
:00:56. > :01:02.many lives have been taken, but what we showed this week is that what has
:01:03. > :01:07.not been taken by terrorists is our unity, our solidarity and our
:01:08. > :01:11.support for each other, hearts are broken, but our resolve is
:01:12. > :01:14.unbreakable. Lives have been destroyed, but our spirit is
:01:15. > :01:23.indestructible. They thought that we would get in, but we have shown that
:01:24. > :01:28.we keep going, and Manchester today and for years to come will be a
:01:29. > :01:35.global symbol for courage and for defiance and for unity. If anybody
:01:36. > :01:39.is in any doubt about how we will stand up to terrorism, if anybody
:01:40. > :01:43.thinks that terrorism will weaken us through fear or destroy our
:01:44. > :01:48.communities and divide them, or if they will shake our resolve, then
:01:49. > :01:55.let them go to Manchester today and any other day in the future. I am
:01:56. > :02:08.proud of Manchester. Let's set struts map -- send a message that we
:02:09. > :02:13.stand in solidarity with them. I'm very pleased to be back in Greenock
:02:14. > :02:17.today. First of all to congratulate Natasha for winning the council seat
:02:18. > :02:24.for the first time and giving such a wonderful speech, to congratulate
:02:25. > :02:30.Martin and Steve on winning the council and having a wonderful
:02:31. > :02:34.Labour group. And I'm particularly pleased to support a friend of mine
:02:35. > :02:41.who I know would make a brilliant member of Parliament for this area,
:02:42. > :02:47.Martin McCluskey. Born in this area, brought up locally at primary school
:02:48. > :02:52.here, his grandfather a union leader to stay few yards along here on the
:02:53. > :02:58.Clyde, and his mother, a midwife at the hospital that the SNP want to
:02:59. > :03:02.cut maternity services from. The Tories say they will stand up
:03:03. > :03:06.against Europe, and the SNP say they will stand for independence, but it
:03:07. > :03:10.is Martin McCluskey that will stand up for the NHS, for justice, for
:03:11. > :03:21.fairness and equality and you need to give him your vote in the
:03:22. > :03:25.election. I was a young candidate once, and in 1983 when I was first
:03:26. > :03:34.elected to parliament, which seems a long time ago, I put on my
:03:35. > :03:39.manifested, this constituency means a youth of fresh ideas. When I stood
:03:40. > :03:42.at my last election, I had to put on the manifesto, this constituency
:03:43. > :03:47.needs a member of Parliament of maturity and experience. But you
:03:48. > :03:52.know this, Matt Machan ski, youth and fresh ideas, but maturity and
:03:53. > :03:56.experience guide his ears. He will make a brilliant member of
:03:57. > :04:04.Parliament fighting on every issue for the people of Inverclyde. The
:04:05. > :04:09.Conservatives want to put this election on one issue. She says she
:04:10. > :04:14.wants us to strengthen her hand against the Europeans. She will not
:04:15. > :04:18.tell us what that hand is, how she will fight for shipbuilding or the
:04:19. > :04:22.financial services for manufacturing, for all the jobs I
:04:23. > :04:27.depended on our membership of the European Union. What she wants is a
:04:28. > :04:32.free hand. She wants is to sign a blank cheque. If she were ever to
:04:33. > :04:39.use the French plan was, it would be carte blanche. We cannot afford to
:04:40. > :04:46.give any Tory leader or Government a free hand. I will tell you now, why
:04:47. > :04:51.it matters here. I looked at the figures before I came here for child
:04:52. > :05:03.poverty in this town and in this district. 35%, one in every three
:05:04. > :05:11.children in Greenock today Apple -- are poor. You know the figures are
:05:12. > :05:19.twice that in the poorer areas than the wealthy areas. We need even be
:05:20. > :05:26.bare MP fighting to expose not that poverty -- poverty will rise to 40%
:05:27. > :05:33.in this constituency unless we have a Labour MP fighting against what
:05:34. > :05:38.they are doing. Look at what is happening across the whole of
:05:39. > :05:43.Britain. In the 1980s under Mrs Thatcher, 3 million children were in
:05:44. > :05:48.poverty. By the time the Tories left office in 1997, there were 4 million
:05:49. > :05:56.short in poverty. We prop property down with the child tax credit,
:05:57. > :06:00.raising benefits, stewards start, the minimum wage, the tax credit is
:06:01. > :06:06.built around the minimum wage, but then after 2010, poverty started
:06:07. > :06:12.rising again. And last year, it was 3.9 million in Britain. 4.1 million
:06:13. > :06:18.this year. It will rise according to all of the forecasts of reputable
:06:19. > :06:23.bodies to 5 million children, 5.1 million children by 2022. More
:06:24. > :06:30.poverty under Mrs May than under Mrs Thatcher. A Britain that she says
:06:31. > :06:34.she's going to unite but will be more socially divided and economic
:06:35. > :06:39.with polarised than ever. A Conservative Party that says they
:06:40. > :06:44.are for the many and not the few, but their policy is hurting the many
:06:45. > :06:50.was helping the few, and we cannot allow that to happen. Do you know
:06:51. > :06:53.what is worse? Three quarters of the children in poverty are in families
:06:54. > :06:59.where someone is working, and that is why we need a rise in the minimum
:07:00. > :07:04.wage, why we need tax credits, why we need more jobs that are better
:07:05. > :07:10.paying, why we need to fight for new jobs in this area that Martin Laird.
:07:11. > :07:18.That is why Martin is needed as a Labour MP for this constituency. It
:07:19. > :07:25.is not just poverty that is rising. It is low income for so many
:07:26. > :07:28.families. If you look at what the predictions are for the next few
:07:29. > :07:32.years under the Tories, what they are not talking about. If child
:07:33. > :07:38.benefit is not going to rise, it will rise by 2% only over a decade
:07:39. > :07:42.where prices have gone up 35%, then families are hit. If the working tax
:07:43. > :07:49.credit is not to rise, it will rise by 4% over a decade and rising nine
:07:50. > :07:57.times as fast. If there are less good paying jobs cars, as we know,
:07:58. > :08:00.and if an planet rises as much as it will in Scotland, then we will know
:08:01. > :08:06.that what will happen in the next three years is that living standards
:08:07. > :08:11.for the majority of people are going to stay the same fall. And I tell
:08:12. > :08:14.you, 23 million people according to the resolution foundation which
:08:15. > :08:19.published these figures just a few days ago and need to be looked at in
:08:20. > :08:24.detail, 23 million people in this country will face a fall in their
:08:25. > :08:30.living standards that is ?1000 or more by 2020. If your child benefit
:08:31. > :08:35.is not going up, if wages in the public sector are only going up by
:08:36. > :08:39.1%, in some cases wages are frozen, and if housing benefit no longer
:08:40. > :08:44.covers rent and if the other services are being diminished, then
:08:45. > :08:49.it is obvious that living standards for large numbers of people, 45% of
:08:50. > :08:52.the population are going to fall. If you run 21,000, which is what you
:08:53. > :08:55.would get at the end of the day if there was a family working on the
:08:56. > :08:59.minimum wages working all hours available with two children, then
:09:00. > :09:05.you will see ?1000 cut in your living standards by 2020. If you run
:09:06. > :09:08.31,000 a year, because you have two people working in the family and if
:09:09. > :09:14.at the same time you have two children, you will see a cut of
:09:15. > :09:19.?3000 a year. If you are on 14,000 a year, a single parent with only one
:09:20. > :09:25.wage working part-time and with two children, venue will see a ?2000 put
:09:26. > :09:30.in your living standards. Make no mistake, this is the stagnation and
:09:31. > :09:33.nation for the next few years, living standards will fall, and it
:09:34. > :09:37.is time the Conservatives were honest about what they were doing,
:09:38. > :09:41.and it is because of that we need a Labour MPs speaking up not just for
:09:42. > :09:45.those who artwork, but for every member of the community in the
:09:46. > :09:53.Inverclyde area, and that is Martin McCluskey. What kind of people are
:09:54. > :09:56.they did talk about the ability and security when we now know that
:09:57. > :10:00.nurses are having to go to food banks? What kind of people are they
:10:01. > :10:04.when food banks are running out of food and they do nothing about it?
:10:05. > :10:08.What kind of people do they take is for when they say they say their
:10:09. > :10:13.motto is God helps those who help themselves. We see with inequality
:10:14. > :10:22.rising, God helps those who he has already helped. That is what the
:10:23. > :10:26.Tory party 's plans for. The SNP are collaborators in this rise in
:10:27. > :10:31.poverty and this attack on living standards. Let's be absolutely
:10:32. > :10:35.clear. The Scottish National Party in Government in Edinburgh have the
:10:36. > :10:40.power to do something about this. Why? Because Martin was one of the
:10:41. > :10:43.people who worked on the powers that the Scottish Parliament house to
:10:44. > :10:48.enable it to deal with child poverty. And to deal with pensioner
:10:49. > :10:53.poverty, and family poverty. They have the power to top up child
:10:54. > :10:59.benefit. Kezia Dugdale has proposed raising it. They can top up the
:11:00. > :11:04.pension credits with the power to do something about housing benefit. But
:11:05. > :11:07.poverty among children has risen to 200,000 in Scotland, and then two
:11:08. > :11:18.years ago, to 220,000 during children. And it will rise by 2020,
:11:19. > :11:22.if the powers Tories are in power. And the SNP Government are doing
:11:23. > :11:26.nothing about it. Inequality and poverty and deprivation will last
:11:27. > :11:31.until doomsday if Ms Sturgeon and the SNP Government are all but are
:11:32. > :11:36.confronted and that is why we need a Labour member of Parliament standing
:11:37. > :11:40.up for the people of this area. It is not just the failure in poverty
:11:41. > :11:43.and tackling poverty. It is a failure in the health service that
:11:44. > :11:50.Martin has just highlighted. Did you know that there were 1300 people in
:11:51. > :11:56.Scotland who were promised that they would get cancer treatments within
:11:57. > :11:59.62 days, it promised we made, that the SNP said they would have polled,
:12:00. > :12:05.but they did not receive the treatment. There were people
:12:06. > :12:08.promised A treatment at a hospital in Scotland within four hours, and
:12:09. > :12:16.the SNP promised it, but they have broken that promise. And there are
:12:17. > :12:19.15, 16 people a month waiting on health service waiting lists,
:12:20. > :12:22.waiting for treatment promised within 18 weeks of going to the
:12:23. > :12:28.doctor, and that promise has been broken to them as well. And that
:12:29. > :12:32.means around 200,000 people a year that who were told that the health
:12:33. > :12:36.service would be safe in the hands of the Scottish Government under the
:12:37. > :12:39.SNP and now finding that every single major promise about the
:12:40. > :12:45.future of the health service has been broken. You see it here in
:12:46. > :12:49.Inverclyde. And you see what is happening. It happened in
:12:50. > :12:54.Dunfermline, in my own area a few years ago. Maternity services, in
:12:55. > :12:58.this case, the midwife service units, now they plan to move it to
:12:59. > :13:02.another hospital and away from the local people who need it. And
:13:03. > :13:07.another unit, and then possibly another unit. You have got to stand
:13:08. > :13:10.up and fight, and I know the best person for that in Westminster is
:13:11. > :13:17.Martin McCluskey who has already said this is a centrepiece of the
:13:18. > :13:22.campaign. You have got to ask yourself all the time, in whose
:13:23. > :13:26.hands is the health service safe? Is it safe in the hands of the Tory
:13:27. > :13:32.party? They voted against the health service in the first place. They now
:13:33. > :13:37.have many people on waiting lists throughout the UK and are doing
:13:38. > :13:41.nothing about it. It is safe in the hands of the SNP? Who are about to
:13:42. > :13:46.take ?1 billion away from the health services as a result of their
:13:47. > :13:50.courts? And that affects Inverclyde and every area of Scotland. Or is
:13:51. > :13:55.it, as I believe is true, safe in the hands of those people in the
:13:56. > :14:01.Labour Party, who saw in the 1930s and 40s that nurses had to leave the
:14:02. > :14:05.bed of the patients to run charity days to support the health service
:14:06. > :14:08.and decided we needed a public one that was free of charge. They not
:14:09. > :14:15.only build the health service, but that between 1997, troubled the
:14:16. > :14:23.services that and will fight single day for a health service that is
:14:24. > :14:24.free at the point of need irrespective of the money they have.
:14:25. > :14:35.And your local Let's also be clear about what is
:14:36. > :14:44.happening to education because the SNP... I have young children and I
:14:45. > :14:51.can see at first hand, are rejecting... We have lost teachers
:14:52. > :15:06.and classroom assistants. Remember the promise that sizes would not go
:15:07. > :15:09.down? We kept it when we made it. They have broken their promise on
:15:10. > :15:13.classroom sizes and it is time they were held to account. And what about
:15:14. > :15:18.the reports a few days ago on reading and as reading and writing
:15:19. > :15:22.standards in our schools and what has happened to arithmetic and the
:15:23. > :15:27.major subjects that are taught in secondary schools? At the age of 13,
:15:28. > :15:33.according to an international league table, we are falling down...
:15:34. > :15:36.Scotland has prided itself in our education system for centuries and
:15:37. > :15:40.now standards in our schools are falling, teachers being removed and
:15:41. > :15:44.at the same time investment not taking place where it is absolutely
:15:45. > :15:50.essential. And you will know from the colleges. 130,000 places removed
:15:51. > :15:54.from the colleges in the ten years that the SNP have been in office.
:15:55. > :15:59.But is young people, mature students, mothers trying to return
:16:00. > :16:02.to work, denied the chance of getting qualifications at colleges
:16:03. > :16:07.because the SNP decided that colleges and the education of those
:16:08. > :16:12.who had lost out sometimes at school and needed the chance of further
:16:13. > :16:16.education came second to all their other objectives. I say the party of
:16:17. > :16:20.education is the Labour Party and you will see from what your council
:16:21. > :16:26.tries to do and what Martin tries to do that we will make education top
:16:27. > :16:29.of our priorities. But you know something else? And this really
:16:30. > :16:36.disturbs me. Unemployment is rising in Scotland in the next two years.
:16:37. > :16:41.The institute at Strathclyde University, we are not being told
:16:42. > :16:47.about this by the Tories or the SNP. They said unemployment will rise to
:16:48. > :16:52.167,000 over the next two years. And that is a huge rise affecting this
:16:53. > :16:55.community and many other communities in Scotland and while we have
:16:56. > :17:01.proposals, Martin's proposal is to make sure that this area has the
:17:02. > :17:06.jobs that make it one of the great centres would trade in the future,
:17:07. > :17:09.proposals that we get contracts from the North Sea that would help the
:17:10. > :17:14.shipbuilding industry, proposals to build a power universities so that
:17:15. > :17:17.we can invest in the new technologies of the future, we need
:17:18. > :17:23.the party 's proposals and we need them now if we are going to the jobs
:17:24. > :17:28.that are now being put at risk. And it comes down to this. The SNP,
:17:29. > :17:32.obsessed about independence, put the needs and aspirations for education
:17:33. > :17:36.and for health care and for jobs secondary to their principal
:17:37. > :17:40.objective and the Conservatives as you can see obsessed about Europe
:17:41. > :17:44.and leaving it, they put their Brexit aspirations second even to
:17:45. > :17:51.jobs and to the future living standards of the British people. Two
:17:52. > :17:53.extremes. One party obsessed about Europe, one other obsessed about
:17:54. > :17:57.independence. One party the Conservatives wanting us to leave
:17:58. > :18:00.Europe and have nothing to do with it while staying in Britain, the
:18:01. > :18:06.other party wanting us to leave Britain and have nothing to do with
:18:07. > :18:10.it and wanting to stay in Europe. And it affects jobs. One party
:18:11. > :18:15.wanting to leave the European single market, a quarter of a million jobs
:18:16. > :18:20.depend on it. Another party wanting to leave the British single market.
:18:21. > :18:23.1 million jobs linked to our trade with the rest of the United Kingdom
:18:24. > :18:26.and we cannot have these two extremes vying with each other for
:18:27. > :18:32.the future. There is a far more common way ahead. It is labour that
:18:33. > :18:37.offers a better way of uniting Scotland. It is labour that offers a
:18:38. > :18:41.better way of bridging the divide in our community. Put the needs and
:18:42. > :18:46.aspirations of Scottish people first. Build a constitutional
:18:47. > :18:49.settlement for Scotland around taking powers from Brussels and
:18:50. > :18:53.bringing them back to Edinburgh rather than to Whitehall, making
:18:54. > :18:57.sure the Scottish Parliament has the powers to deal with the jobs issues
:18:58. > :19:00.I have talked about for the future but at the same time recognising
:19:01. > :19:05.that we need the strength and to be part of the strong United Kingdom
:19:06. > :19:10.when it comes to our fiscal pollies, our currency and our borders, when
:19:11. > :19:15.and the SNP policies have ever added up and nothing they have said since
:19:16. > :19:19.the referendum makes me think they will ever add in the future. No to
:19:20. > :19:23.the two extremes and more support for the better way forward that can
:19:24. > :19:28.unite Scotland in the future and it comes down in the end to what is in
:19:29. > :19:35.our DNA. What makes us tick and what we believe matters. The SNP get a
:19:36. > :19:41.morning and they think about how they can get to independence. The
:19:42. > :19:47.Tories only think about how they can get us out of Europe. The Lib Dems
:19:48. > :19:52.are thinking about coalitions with anybody and anyone. Ukip no longer
:19:53. > :19:57.get up in the morning. The Tories have stolen all their clothes. But
:19:58. > :20:01.Labour, we get up in the morning and we think, how can we advance social
:20:02. > :20:08.justice, how can we make for a fairer and better society and we
:20:09. > :20:11.believe if one person dreams, it is simply a dream but if we all dream
:20:12. > :20:15.about the future, the best way together, then that dream can become
:20:16. > :20:23.a reality, a more just society for all time. We cannot truly be content
:20:24. > :20:28.when there are so many people in our society discontented. We can't be
:20:29. > :20:31.truly secure when there are so many people and millions of people
:20:32. > :20:35.feeling insecure. We can't really be at ease as a Labour supporter when
:20:36. > :20:40.we know there are millions of people ill at ease in our society and it is
:20:41. > :20:45.not anti-wealth to say that we must do more, the wealthy must do more to
:20:46. > :20:49.help those who are not wealthy. It is not anti-business to say those
:20:50. > :20:52.who have been successful in business should do more to help those who
:20:53. > :20:57.have never had the chance in business and it is not anti-markets
:20:58. > :21:01.to say that markets yes they can be free but they cannot be values free.
:21:02. > :21:09.Markets exist to serve the community and we must ensure that they are
:21:10. > :21:13.underpinned by morals too. Politics goes in cycles, we know that, we see
:21:14. > :21:18.it in our own experience. We can beat up one minute and down the
:21:19. > :21:21.next. We were a success in the 60s and by the 80s we were in
:21:22. > :21:27.difficulty. We won handsomely in 1997 and then have been out of
:21:28. > :21:31.government for seven years. We can be the darlings of the media one day
:21:32. > :21:35.and the same newspaper columnist can be attacking us as enemies of the
:21:36. > :21:39.people the next day. But all through that and particularly when it is
:21:40. > :21:44.tough, this is the time, it is always the time to stand up for what
:21:45. > :21:48.we believe. I say to you this, if Martin McCluskey is not there in
:21:49. > :21:53.Parliament from this area to stand up for the health service, who
:21:54. > :21:56.really will? If Martin McCluskey is not there to speak for the children
:21:57. > :22:02.who have been condemned to poverty, do you think there is anybody else
:22:03. > :22:05.of any of you the parties who will? If Martin McCluskey is not there to
:22:06. > :22:08.talk what the needs of children for education and the needs for the
:22:09. > :22:13.future none that have got to be met by better jobs and who is going to
:22:14. > :22:17.be there to stand up this community 's best needs and noblest
:22:18. > :22:22.aspirations? I believe that the issue when the election comes in a
:22:23. > :22:26.few days' time, vote Labour, vote for Martin McCluskey, stand up for
:22:27. > :22:28.Martin McCluskey so that when he is elected, he can stand with you.
:22:29. > :22:38.Thank you very much.