EIGHT SNP MSPs have backed an Alba motion lodged in the Scottish Parliament condemning Keir Starmer’s praise of Margaret Thatcher.
In a column published in The Sunday Telegraph, the Labour Party leader applauded Thatcher for bringing “meaningful change” to Britain and for setting “loose our natural entrepreneurialism”.
Starmer has faced widespread criticism for the comments, including from the First Minister Humza Yousaf who said they were an “insult” to Scotland.
On Monday, the Alba Party launched a motion which noted the devastating impact Thatcher’s policies had on Scottish industry and the communities reliant upon it.
It states that throughout the period of Thatcher’s rule "the Conservative Government allowed the failure of British Steel’s mill at Gartcosh, the Invergordon aluminium smelter and the Corpach pulp mill which would further lead to the closure of Ravenscraig that signalled the end of large-scale steel making in Scotland, resulting in a direct loss of 770 jobs, and another 10,000 jobs linked to these.”
Now, eight SNP MSPs have issued their support of the motion.
They are: Colin Beattie, Bob Doris, Christine Grahame, Bill Kidd, Fulton MacGregor, John Mason, Ivan McKee, Michelle Thomson.
It comes after Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar finally spoke out about Starmer’s praise of the former Tory prime minister.
However, while he said Thatcher was a “destructive force” in Scotland, he simultaneously defended Starmer and urged people to “actually read the article”.
