Westminster serves the rich – Scotland can do so much better

There is one thing that has been in short supply in the UK in recent years – hope. The belief that a better future is possible.

And no wonder. For too long, the wrong choices have been made at Westminster. Brexit, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and now Keir Starmer’s disastrous first year in office – it has been relentless chaos for almost a decade.

Energy bills, food prices and the cost of just about everything else has soared, while wages and living standards have stagnated.

The rich get richer, and everyone else is left to struggle. London and the South East of England are showered with investment, while Scotland is left as an afterthought.

That is how Westminster works, and people can see it is fundamentally unfair. I cannot blame anyone for being scunnered with it all.

But while Westminster is offering us a dismal future, my leadership is about offering hope for a better future to the people of Scotland. And that hope will come with the fresh start of independence.

Later this week, I will be heading up to Aberdeen for the SNP’s conference – and I will be setting out exactly why that fresh start is so necessary.

And crucially, I will be setting out some of the opportunities independence will bring to make people’s lives better.

The fresh start of independence will allow us to do things differently from the Westminster chaos and reclaim our future.

Let us take energy bills for example. Despite Keir Starmer’s promise to cut them by £300, last week they went up again. They are now almost £200 higher than when Labour came to office.

There is only so much people can take – so many family budgets are stretched to breaking point.

But this should not be the case in an energy-rich country like Scotland. We produce huge amounts of energy and our people just are not getting the benefits.

Independence means that Scotland’s energy wealth will be in our own hands – meaning we can use our vast, low-cost renewable electricity to bring your bills down.

That is just one way that independence will improve people’s lives. The people of Scotland will be in charge, not Westminster politicians.

That is what I am going in to next year’s election to deliver. And I am asking you to stand with me, to create the nation you want Scotland to be.

This column originally appeared in the Daily Record on October 6th 2025.