Angela Rayner, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Anas Sarwar, Leader of the Scottish Labour Party visit Royal Strathclyde Blindcraft Industries in Glasgow.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Well, obviously, the SNP have been calling for the Labour
00:22 Party to commit to the full devolution of employment law.
00:25 Will you commit to that?
00:27 They won't need it, because I want employment law
00:30 across the whole of the United Kingdom to be uplifted
00:32 and better.
00:33 That's why we've got a New Deal for Working People.
00:35 I want the New Deal for Working People to be here in Scotland
00:38 so we have those protections of employment law.
00:41 I was my great Manchester MP.
00:43 I saw what the Tories did during furlough.
00:45 They tried to give us less because we were in Orvern.
00:48 We don't need as much in our area.
00:50 I don't want to see those disparities.
00:52 I want to see us having real good employment
00:54 practices across the whole of the United Kingdom
00:56 so the New Deal for Working People
00:58 will be in effect across the board
01:00 rather than it being split off between the different nations.
01:02 That's what I want to see, and that's the focus I've got.
01:05 So whether you're in Manchester or Edinburgh,
01:07 you will have good employment practices under UK Labour
01:10 government.
01:10 So is that a no-go then?
01:12 My focus is on getting the New Deal for Working People
01:14 across the United Kingdom, not devolving
01:17 that particular issue.
01:18 That's what I want to see.
01:20 So we've always said that I can completely understand
01:23 the argument when you see the carnage caused by UK Tory
01:26 government to workers' rights and to working people
01:29 across the country.
01:30 But what we have in Angela's New Deal for Working People
01:33 is a bold, radical plan to give people new rights on day one
01:37 when they start their job in terms of banning the zero-hour
01:40 contracts finally, ending fire and rehire,
01:43 increasing the living wage, equalising the living
01:45 wage in terms of those aged over 18.
01:47 That is a positive, radical plan that
01:50 is good for Scotland, good for the whole of the UK.
01:52 We've always said that our priority, first and foremost,
01:54 is make sure that's delivered.
01:55 And then how we entrench that is going to be
01:57 the next phase of that challenge.
01:59 I'm Alistair Grant, and I'm the political editor
02:01 of The Scotsman.
02:02 And I'm here at the Royal Strathclyde Blindcraft
02:04 Industries, the supported employment manufacturing
02:07 facility in Glasgow, where Labour's deputy leader,
02:11 Angela Rayner, has been on a visit with the Scottish Labour
02:13 leader, Anna Sarwar.
02:15 Labour very much stepping up their campaigning ahead
02:17 of that expected general election next year,
02:20 but also, of course, ahead of that key by-election
02:23 in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, a by-election that
02:26 could very much be a bellwether for whether there is that Labour
02:30 revival in Scotland.
02:31 So today, Angela Rayner facing a lot of questions
02:33 about the two-child benefit cap, something
02:36 that's been a bit of a row for the Labour Party
02:38 over the last couple of weeks.
02:39 Michael Shanks, Labour's candidate in Rutherglen
02:41 and Hamilton West, making clear he
02:44 doesn't support that policy, but also
02:47 sticking to that party line, that Labour
02:49 line that they will be coming into government
02:51 if they do win that general election in a very
02:53 difficult financial situation, and they
02:55 won't be able to do all the things they want to do.
02:58 But other parties have been trying to exploit
03:00 that perceived division between the Scottish Labour
03:03 Party and the UK Labour Party on the two-child benefit cap.
03:07 Angela Rayner today, very much, again,
03:09 sticking to that line about the difficult financial situation
03:13 in the party, not being able to do all the measures that it
03:16 would want to do, but having this overall anti-poverty
03:20 package.
03:21 I also asked her if she would commit
03:23 to the full devolution of employment law.
03:25 That's something the SNP want to see.
03:27 Humza Yousaf, the First Minister,
03:28 was tweeting about it this morning,
03:30 and calling on Labour to commit to that.
03:33 Angela Rayner essentially ruling that out and saying,
03:36 as far as she's concerned, it won't be needed,
03:37 because they'll be putting in a package across the United
03:40 Kingdom and won't be treating the nations differently on this.
03:44 So I think you can expect to see senior Labour
03:46 people up in Scotland quite a few times in the future
03:50 as we approach that by-election in Rotherglen and Hamilton
03:54 West, which we expect to take place in around October.
03:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]