Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was in Falkirk to meet local businesses and walkabout Falkirk High Street ahead of the local council by-election on Thursday, October 17. The Falkirk Herald asked him some key questions affecting the local community.
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00:00The by-election on Thursday, what's your message to the residents of Falkirk and Falkirk South?
00:05I think this is a really important by-election particularly for what's happening here locally.
00:09I know there's a big decision coming up for example around school hours and I know that's
00:13something that the Labour campaign has been particularly focusing on and so if you want
00:17a local champion that's going to stand up for you, your family and families right across Falkirk South
00:22and actually right across the whole local authority, they need to come out and vote
00:25Scottish Labour in this contest and for far too long this is an area that's been neglected
00:30first of all by a UK Tory government for 14 years but also by the SNP over the last 17 years
00:35neglecting local governments, neglecting places like Falkirk and neglecting communities and I
00:40think we can be better than that, I think we can do better than that and that's why if you want a
00:44local champion that's going to stand up for Falkirk, you need to vote Scottish Labour in this contest.
00:48No problems. Can I move on to some local issues?
00:50Obviously the Grangemouth refinery news affects a huge area of the population and
00:56further afield, what will the Labour government do for Grangemouth?
01:01Look it's hugely concerning because we have to support the local workforce, we have to make sure
01:06the local communities are also supported and protected because we've seen in the past what
01:11happens when industries shut down, there isn't a proper plan, there isn't a just transition
01:16and people lose their jobs and communities suffer for generations and we can't afford
01:20to make that mistake as we transition away from oil and gas into that renewable future
01:25and that's why it's really important that the Scottish government, the UK government,
01:29the local business itself work together to make sure we're supporting the workforce and giving
01:34that genuine transition to the workers to the jobs of the future and that's why it's really
01:39important that people bang their heads together and work in that way. That's what Ed Miliband
01:43has sought to do by co-chairing it with Gillian Martin who's obviously the net zero secretary for
01:49the Scottish government, it's why the Grangemouth growth deal in itself is so important. I want to
01:54see what more we can be doing working in partnership with the local workforce, working
01:58with the local trade unions as well as the company and two governments to make sure we're delivering
02:03that transition because I don't want any community to suffer, I want us to make sure we have
02:08the jobs of the future at that site, growth and investment coming into this part of the country
02:14and for us to make sure these communities are protected so they can stay here, live locally here,
02:19have quality services here, have well-paid long-term jobs here as well to maximise the opportunity
02:25through that transition. Thank you. Education, locally there's concerns about proposals to cut
02:32the education week, what's Labour's stance on it? So I know locally the local group and the local
02:38authority is opposing those changes, that's why this by-election is also really crucial because
02:44they could come down to a single vote and actually having another councillor on the council making
02:49that case is really really important. That's a campaign that people who locally are fighting
02:53really hard on. Thank you and one last thing, we've got an uncomfortable subject in Falkirk,
02:58a more recent one in relation to fake news surrounding asylum seekers, there's asylum
03:05seekers who are housed in the community here and there's been a climate groundswell of
03:13negativity towards the asylum seekers which is very unfortunate for Falkirk. What would you
03:19advocate there? I think the first thing to say is that we all have a personal responsibility
03:25to challenge fake news and misinformation and we saw really sharply what happens when
03:30misinformation is allowed to spread, when we have the riots in other parts of the country,
03:34thankfully we didn't see those riots here in Scotland. So we can't be complacent, we've got
03:39to call out the misinformation whenever we see it and we've got to make sure we have a fair
03:43immigration system that allows people to get the support when they're fleeing acts of tyranny or
03:48violence from other parts of the world while also having a controlled and managed immigration system
03:52that meets our skills needs and our growth needs here in Scotland and across the wider UK.
03:57But what we cannot allow ourselves to descend into is in us versus them politics or the targeting
04:03of minority communities or people for their own ends trying to split communities apart. I will
04:09always challenge that really robustly and challenge the fake news, challenge the far right whilst also
04:14saying of course we've got to have an open and honest debate about controlled managed migration
04:19that meets our skills needs but the great thing about Scotland, the great thing that
04:23I have seen myself is regardless of your background, regardless of where you come from,
04:26when you come here, when you are here, we treat you as an equal Scot and that's a principle that will endure.