Britain is Broken and the Westminster way isn’t working.

Friends,

What an honour it is to be asked to welcome you all to Aberdeen today.

I hope you’re feeling well, I hope you’re feeling positive – because you should be!

But I’ve got a question, where have you been?

Because there’s been loads going on in Aberdeen these last few months.

We had the wonderful NUART festival return to the city. Murals painted on buildings throughout Aberdeen – bringing some colour to our sparkling granite.

One of the best installations is a giant seagull painted on the side of a building at the junction of Willowbank Road & Holburn Street.

Or as we now call it – Douglas Ross Corner.

We, of course, played host to the world-renowned Tall Ships Race – with 400,000 people visiting our fantastic local port.

Unfortunately there was one vessel that wasn’t able to dock due to a crew member having links to Russia.

Who knew Nigel Farage was on board?

And we had 100,000 Aberdeen fans line the streets to celebrate the Scottish Cup returning to the city for the first time since 1990.

I’m glad they had a great time, but friends, as a proud Dundee United supporter I can confirm I was washing my hair that day.

There was also a sigh of relief amongst Kevin Stewart’s office team when they learned that when he stands down from Holyrood next year they’ll no longer need to run to the bakers to pick him up a tattie pie.

Kevin, of course, has been a stalwart of our party in Aberdeen for decades. An elected member since 1999. A mentor to dozens of people in this room.

Kevin, your support to me and my family has been immense, your dedication to encouraging young people in our movement unrivalled, and your commitment to our party and cause immeasurable.

Thank you, for everything you have done.

Actually, conference, let’s extend that thanks to all of our parliamentary colleagues who have decided to pass on the baton next year.

They laid the path that we all now seek to follow.

And we know that when we deliver our independence,

we will do so with each and every one of them standing at our side

as activists, as campaigners, as passionate believers in Scotland’s ability,

Scotland’s right, Scotland’s destiny to determine her own future.

And, fellow nationalists,

Let us be in no doubt.

That independent future is essential…and you don’t even need to take my word for it.

Because consensus has broken out at Westminster.

There is now a shared view amongst the public and political class that Britain is Broken.

A Broken Britain set alight in the fires of the financial crash, leaving the burnt-out wreck of Westminster in plain view.

Where their response was not to invest in the people of these isles, but to make them poorer.

To saddle my generation with austerity as a price for the failings of those who came before us.

A Broken Britain that stumbled into the abyss of Brexit.

An economic folly that has left us all poorer.

A cultural folly that has left us smaller.

A political folly that told Scots everything we need to know about this supposed Union of Equals: our votes do not matter.

A Broken Britain that brought us the scandal and ruin of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

That’s the same Broken Britain that the Labour Party promised to rebuild.

They spoke to those too afraid to turn on the heating,

fearful of the cost of the food shop,

worried that winter was coming and the kids need a new coat, again,

They told them that their voices would finally be heard behind the walls of Westminster.

They told them that change would finally come to their lives.

Conference, the Labour Party have already shown their hand and let us be in no doubt, they have failed.

Because when the public stretched out that hand to the Labour Party and asked to be picked up after fourteen years of Tory chaos, what were they given in return?

A Labour Party led by a Prime Minister so lacking in judgement that he wasn’t even trusted to buy his own specs and suits.

Who promised to lower energy bills, protect pensioners, grow the economy, tackle poverty, end austerity and stop the scandals.

Yet energy bills are up,

the winter fuel allowance was cut,

WASPI women were left out in the cold,

the two-child cap was kept,

businesses burdened by a sleekit tax hike

and the best friend of the world’s most notorious paedophile became the Ambassador to the United States.

And, after so many broken promises, his only response is to pull a new one out his pocket – a Brit Card.

As our unionist friends say – No Thanks.

Conference,

This is a Labour Party who have power, but no purpose.

A political party in name only.

And through their actions they have already shown Scotland what a Labour victory at the Holyrood elections next year would look like.

Thanks to Keir Starmer we have already all seen the movie.

And we don’t need a Labour Government in Scotland that will look every bit like the one that is failing us in Westminster.

Our nation must set its sights so much higher than that.

Scotland must aspire for something so much better, and ONLY the SNP can deliver that future.

Friends, friends,

Forgive me, I almost forgot,

The Prime Minister’s judgement was called into question on another occasion too.

You’ll remember that when he decided to fire Ian Murray, he angered almost every Labour MP from Scotland.

Everyone except for Douglas Alexander that is.

And what a warm response Douglas received from his colleagues, with one telling the Daily Record that:

“If I had a pound for everyone who liked Douglas, I would have 50p.”

That’s a sore one Douglas.

But conference, I’m told he’s back in the role to help beef up Labour’s campaign for Holyrood next year.

Parachuted in to help keep the branch office in check.

And the Scottish public are familiar with what a branch office looks like, aren’t they?

It looks a lot like Anas Sarwar promising on live TV before an election that a UK Labour Government would save the Grangemouth refinery…

Only to nod along as it shut.

Before then going on to cheeras they pulled out all the stops to save the Scunthorpe steel works.

Telling the workers, the community and the economy of Scunthorpe that they matter.

Telling the workers at Grangemouth, the communities of Grangemouth and the economy of Scotland that they do not.

Fellow delegates,

Scotland doesn’t need Keir Starmer’s branch office.

No.

We need a Leader and a Party who will always put Scotland’s interests first.

And the people of Scotland know that John Swinney and the SNP will always do that.

Conference, if I may I just want to be a bit candid with you all.

Because I think it is important.

Talk of Grangemouth echoes in these parts.

The people who built our nation into a global energy powerhouse have the very same fears and anxieties for their future as those in Scunthorpe whose jobs were saved, and those in Grangemouth whose jobs were not.

These folk are the engineers, the chemists, the technicians, the welders, the divers, the plumbers and plant operators who power our homes and our economy today.

They are the glue that binds our nation together and are the only people who can deliver a renewable future that will power our homes and our economy for decades to come.

But there is an uncomfortable reality that we can’t and must not shy away from – the ability to deliver that future feels ever-more uncertain.

I have already looked into the eyes of some of those who have been told that their jobs no longer exist.

They’ve got families at home – just like you and me.

So let me speak on their behalf today –

We are told that a Just Transition will leave no worker behind –

Well right now – on Ed Miliband’s watch – that means that there is no Just Transition.

And be in no doubt that there are those who are seeking to capitalise on this uncertainty.

The wolves in sheep’s clothing.

The people who offer false hope and false promises that fossil fuels will last forever and that jobs will be safe forever.

That offshore wind and carbon storage will never be needed.

Just like the Labour Government they oppose – they want to build a cliff-edge instead of building opportunity.

And the workers deserve better. They are right to demand better.

They deserve a middle way.

A middle way that rejects the binary choices and instead maintains a world-class industry off our coast that can build another world-class industry at its side.

Conference,

Let me remind you.

It’s Scotland’s jobs, it’s Scotland’s energy, it’s Scotland’s future.

And for me, that’s worth fighting for.

And friends, when it comes to fighting for Scotland’s corner, there is no party more trusted than our own.

Just as there is no person, and no politician, more trusted to lead our nation than John Swinney.

And friends, we are so fortunate to have him as our leader.

At a time of chaos with Keir, we have stability and strength with Swinney.

In an uncertain world, the impact of a powerful, passionate, trusted leader cannot be emphasised enough.

And what I’ve seen over the course of the last eighteen months is a First Minister who lives up to that billing, and then some.

Against all the odds he brought parties in our parliament together to deliver a budget that,

cemented record investment in our NHS to cut waiting times

scrapped peak rail fares for workers across our nation,

and will restore the winter fuel payment for pensioners.

A First Minister who has put Scotland’s interests first by driving a deal for our whisky sector in America.

Who saved the jobs at Alexander Dennis.

And who has shown leadership on Gaza in the face of those enabling a genocide.

Conference, a First Minister who will lead our party to a majority at the elections and deliver a fresh start that we need with independence.

Conference,

He’s a man with a spring in his step, and hope in his heart.

I mean there should be after all those early morning runs.

And friends it is a hope for a Scotland where we grow our economy and deliver on the world stage.

Where the cycle of poverty that plagues our children is broken.

Where our energy wealth flows into the pockets of those sheltering from the cold.

Where our young people secure the future that they desire.

Hope for a Scotland where our own choices determine our own future.

And friends, what a tonic that hope and ambition for Scotland is to the cycle of despair from Westminster – where a poverty of ambition is now inbuilt.

And it’s that poverty of ambition and that inability to offer anything beyond the status quo that is opening the door to darker forces.

And that brings me to a story that I wish to finish.

At a constituent advice surgery just the other week I had a guy come in to talk to me about his wife’s indefinite leave to remain – a foreign national, hailing from one of our greatest allies.

He is a man who has ploughed his heart and soul into a successful career and is doing well in life.

He’s a Scottish success story.

And friends, I don’t think I understate it when I say that he is worried, he is scared, and he is angry about the rhetoric coming out of Westminster.

Because this is personal. It’s now about the right of his wife to stay in our nation. To stay by his side.

Nigel Farage says that he would strip away her rights.

Keir Starmer says that he will make it harder for her to gain them.

What has become of Westminster where it spends more time trying to split up successful families, than making sure that families across these isles can afford a home, can afford their heating, can afford their shopping and a secure and good job?

So – to all those who work in our hospitals, build our homes, drive forward our local businesses, teach our kids, who look after our parents and our grandparents, our neighbours, our friends.

Know that this wonderful wee nation of ours belongs to all of us, equally.

 

Know that this is your home.

 

And know that this home will always be big enough and broad minded enough to include you.

 

And friends,

 

That is what the next few days of this conference is all about.

 

Britain is Broken and the Westminster way isn’t working.

 

We all understand that – we know it and we feel it.

 

Far more importantly – the vast majority of the public know it and feel it too.

 

And although it is important to describe the problems in the present,

 

our real job is to offer our people the choice of a better future.

 

A future that raises our living standards and raises our ambitions for each other.

 

A Scotland that has the choice and the chance to build a nation anew.

 

We all know that in the last ten years there has been plenty of talk from our unionist friends about what exactly a ‘generation’ means and how long it lasts.

 

But while all that talk has been going on – what they have completely missed is that an actual generation – my generation – has been forced to live through the worst of Westminster.

 

Our generation has lived through higher bills, they’ve found it harder to get a home, they have been through Boris, Brexit, and a Liz Truss budget.

 

They’ve seen chaos with the Tories, and are now seeing chaos with Keir.

 

They see the threat of a Farage future.

 

They have lived with a Westminster system that has made the politics of this island smaller, poorer and harsher.

 

That generation remembers that in 2014 they were made plenty of promises and things have only gotten worse.

 

That generation remembers that only last year, they were promised ‘change’ by Keir Starmer’s Labour Party – and again, things have only gotten worse.

 

That generation and every generation now knows the damage of the Westminster way – where things only get worse.

 

Friends, we have all lived through that past,

 

Let’s make sure we aren’t forced to live through that future, too.

 

So conference – the choice for every single one of us is this.

 

Will another generation be forced to live under a Westminster way that doesn’t work?

 

Or will this generation of Scots decide that we deserve a fresh choice and a fresh start?

 

For this party – that is the hope that we have,

 

it is the hope we offer.

 

Because we are the only party that can deliver the hope of a fresh start with independence.

 

Let us renew that hope and that opportunity this weekend,

 

let us win a majority next year,

 

and, together, let’s build Scotland anew.

 

Thank you.