As part of the Strathclyde Telegraph’s coverage of the Scottish Election, I recently spoke to Paul Sweeney, Labour MSP for Glasgow. Sweeney is campaigning to be re-elected in Glasgow and was preparing to go doorstepping when I met with him.
The public opinion towards Labour is widely negative in Scotland, with Keir Starmer having a disapproval score of 65%. When talking to people, Sweeney finds that most people are “noncommittal, which is reflected in some of the national polling”.
As an MSP who frequently works alongside Scottish Labour Leader Anas Sarwar, I asked whether Sweeney thought Sarwar was right to denounce Starmer in the shock press conference in February. Sweeney agreed with Sarwar, adding that “unpleasant as it is to say so, there is no getting away from the fact that Kier Starmer is a political liability […] it is locked into people’s minds that he is not a good Prime Minister and people are not impressed”.
In terms of the public’s reaction towards Sweeney himself, he believes that “they are not against me; they just aren’t necessarily definitely voting Labour yet” and that there is a “lack of enthusiasm for anyone, no one is getting a buzz out of this campaign”.
Sweeney reports that the main issues constituents are reporting to him are that services are in decline, issues with public transport, housing and immigration. In particular, middle-aged people are voicing “concerns about immigration in the context of resource scarcity, or at least perceived resource scarcity”.
“There are certainly people who were Labour but now vote Reform because they’re concerned about immigration. It’s quite depressing, you’re getting outright racist tropes spoken about on the doors”.
He has found that Reform has been “trying to whip up public anxiety around things like former nursing homes being converted into asylum accommodation”.
The Reform Party is currently second in the latest YouGov voting intention poll at 20%, whilst Labour is down to just 15%. Sweeney claims that “other parties have seen direct bleeds; like Tories to reform, or you’ve seen a stickier adherence to the SNP from their voters in 2024. But in Labour’s case, it is Labour to undecided that is the biggest switch”.
When I asked why he thinks Reform is increasing in popularity, Sweeney identified that “the dysfunction of the government and the indulgence of the politicians results in public frustration, which is like manna from heaven for populists and bigots”. He admitted that his “personal tolerance for it is rock bottom at the moment because [he has] found it so debilitating to deal with”.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to turn this into a therapy session”, he adds.
The subject moves on to how he intends to help students in Glasgow, and Sweeney believes that the cost of living and housing are two crucial issues for young people. He identifies that there is “a million plus square feet of office space in Glasgow city centre that’s lying empty and can be converted into flats. Let’s reinfuse the city centre with a really vibrant neighbourhood population of students”.
Controversially, Sweeney believes that in terms of the free student tuition policy in Scotland, “we have been guilty of Scottish exceptionalism for too long”. He believes there needs to be “a national conversation about student finance in the future. I think we have dined out too long with the free tuition fees”.
“We don’t often think about the fact that if you’re a poor student starting university, you max out the living cost loans”, so they are still left with debt and at a disadvantage.
Since our conversation, Paul Sweeney has been continuing his campaign by visiting local businesses and community centres.
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