SENIOR Labour Party figures have been invited to take advantage of the £2 fare cap to go on a "bargain broken promises bus tour" of Scotland.
The SNP have encouraged Labour politicians to "apologise and explain their disastrous decisions to Scottish communities", accusing the party of breaking "a litany of promises" to the Scottish people.
It comes as the £2 bus fare cap was expanded to Glasgow and parts of the west of Scotland on Monday.
The cap covers single journeys taken across the Glasgow, Ayrshire, Inverclyde, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and Dunbartonshire areas, as well as in the Highlands and Islands following a successful pilot scheme.
The SNP have called on UK Government energy minister Michael Shanks to "kick off the tour" by travelling from his Hamilton constituency to Ardersier, where a Chinese firm's proposed wind turbine factory was blocked in March over security concerns.
The party called on Shanks to "explain to workers and the community why the UK Labour Government blocked £1.5 billion investment and denied 1500 skilled local jobs coming to the area".
Next, the SNP said Anas Sarwar – who quit as Scottish Labour leader to take up a role in the UK Government – should travel for £2 "from his mansion to the dentist across the city" where he ruled out ever taking a seat in the House of Lords during a press call with journalists back in May.
Jackie Baillie, described by the SNP as the "puppet master" of Scottish Labour leadership hopeful Joe Fagan, has been encouraged to travel from Dumbarton to Faslane for £4 to "come clean on why the UK Labour Government is sending almost £10bn a year on nuclear weapons while ruining investment in conventional Scottish forces".
And MP Gordon McKee, who has gone viral for social media videos explaining various concepts using foodstuffs – spending nearly £1500 of taxpayer cash on a new camera to film them – has been invited to travel from Glasgow to a distillery in the Highlands for £4 "to use biscuits to explain why the Labour Government hiked taxes on Scottish whisky despite promises to back the sector 'to the hilt'."
SNP MSP Zen Ghani told The National: “The introduction of the £2 bus fare cap is a game changer for communities in Scotland, but it is also the opportunity for Labour Party politicians to get out across Scotland and apologise for their broken promises.
“The Labour Party has broken a litany of promises made to the Scottish people in recent years and now, thanks to the SNP, they have the chance to go on a bargain-priced broken promises bus tour to apologise and explain their disastrous decisions to Scottish communities.
“From denying jobs and investment, to misleading journalists and the public – that is the undeniable legacy of the Labour Party in Scotland.
“I strongly encourage all Labour Party politicians to take advantage of the bus fare cap and get their message out there to the people of Scotland.”
A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: “It is notable that the SNP are having to copy Labour policies, such as capping bus fares, as they do not have any ideas of their own.
“If SNP ministers were to hop on a bus for a tour of the broken promises they have made during their 19 years in power, the journey would last for the entirety of the Scottish parliamentary term.
“Of course, John Swinney and Stephen Flynn would be squabbling over who should be driving the bus, while incompetent SNP ministers would be taking the public for a ride, as they usually do.”
