Keir Starmer vow to harness potential of Inverclyde's ports

Speaking to the Telegraph, the man bidding to become the UK’s next prime minister vowed to improve living standards for local people if he wins the upcoming general election.

Sir Keir was in town to unveil his party’s ‘six steps’ for Scotland at a major set piece launch in the Beacon Arts Centre.

They include cutting NHS waiting times and establishing a state-owned firm called GB Energy.

Mr Starmer later paid a visit to Peel Ports Clydeport in the afternoon.

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The Labour boss spoke to the Telegraph after a tour of the container terminal about his party’s vision for Inverclyde.

Asked how Labour would tackle the issues of deprivation and depopulation which have blighted the district for decades, he said: “To fix something you need to understand the problem, you need to have a strategy and you need to have a plan that can be implemented.

“We’ve been talking today about Great British Energy, which is a publicly owned company that’s going to be based in Scotland.

“Amongst the things that GB Energy will be looking at is ports and port infrastructure.

“That’s why we’ve come here – to understand the potential and see what can be done in combination and partnership as we go forward and to make sure we don’t just promise the jobs of the future, but we deliver those jobs of the future.

“I am absolutely determined that we will have what I call a mission-driven government, that means a government with a driving sense of purpose.

“It’ll be much less rhetoric, much less flourish, but real delivery.

“Delivery doesn’t come from words, delivery comes from action and plans.”

The Labour leader was joined at the Beacon by a host of senior Labour figures, including deputy leader Angela Rayner, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, shadow secretaries Ed Miliband and Ian Murray, and Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie.

His party’s other pledges included delivering economic stability, creating jobs and opportunities for young people, maximising Scotland’s influence and making work pay.

Speaking to Sir Keir that afternoon, the Telegraph highlighted the recent job losses which have hit Inverclyde’s local economy - with around 1,200 posts wiped out in the last 18 months – and asked if a Labour government would be able to bring jobs back to the area.

The Labour leader said: “We need the next generation of jobs and our ambition is to make sure they are here.

“We don’t want to have this constant feeling that people have where they’ve got to get out to get on.

“We want everybody’s living standards to go up wherever they live, not just growth in some parts of Scotland but in all parts of Scotland.”

Labour’s general election candidate for Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West, Martin McCluskey, told the Telegraph that sites such as Inchgreen Marine Park in Greenock, which has recently seen an £11m investment, could be crucial to creating more jobs.

He added: “We are in an ideal area for taking advantage of green jobs and jobs in energy, whether that’s manufacturing of things like turbines or other marine industries.

“I think that’s where we can actually bring the jobs of the future into Inverclyde.

“I would hope that in the future we would have hundreds of jobs on that site with the kind of programmes of investment that Labour are talking about in this election.

“Between the increase in economic growth and the stability that Labour is going to bring and also then with the investment nationwide in green jobs and energy I think we can not just bring more jobs back but also increase the number of jobs and economic prosperity locally.

“If I get elected and we have a Labour government, day one, week one I will be banging on Ed’s door and writing to him to continue the conversation about investment locally.”

Sir Keir also stated that there was ‘always the potential’ for the government to bring civil service jobs into areas like Inverclyde, but added that it should not be the sole ambition of his party.

He said: “The current Westminster government has moved some civil service jobs across the country and thinks that it’s actually devolving power, resource and growing the economy.

“It’s a good thing to have a civil service in different parts of the country, I’m not against it, but I’ve got much bigger ambitions than that in terms of the number of jobs, the different sectors that we can support and having a local growth plan where this is all brought together around the delivery we need, the skills we need, the partnership we need but also at the heart of it the stability.

“If you’ve got one thing in common between the Westminster government and the Scottish government it’s chaos, division and non-delivery.

“We have to cut through that if we’re going to deliver for Scotland.”