NICOLA Sturgeon branded Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson “utterly useless” yesterday as the campaign for the December 12 election kicked off in earnest.
At a rowdy session of First Minister’s Questions, interim Tory leader Jackson Carlaw asked the SNP boss to personally thank Corbyn for putting up such little resistance to indyref2.
“Perhaps she can enlighten the chamber – what is it that first attracted her to the independence-referendum-supporting Jeremy Corbyn?” he asked.
Sturgeon said: “I do not know whether this will come as a shock to anybody – I am not sure that I am giving the newspapers or broadcasters any great exclusive – but I announce that I think that the leaders of the main two United Kingdom parties are completely and utterly useless.
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“I do not think that they have got Scotland’s interests at heart. That is one of the many reasons why I think that Scotland needs to be independent. That would allow us to be a country at the top table in Europe, to invest Scotland’s wealth in our public services and to lift children out of poverty.”
She said she remained “determined to give the people of Scotland the choice to be independent”.
The clash in the Scottish Parliament came as the Labour leader launched his party’s appeal to voters with a promise of a second referendum on Brexit.
“We need to take it out of the hands of the politicians and trust the people to have the final say,” he said at a speech in Battersea.
“Labour will get Brexit sorted within six months. We’ll let the people decide whether to leave with a sensible deal or remain. That really isn’t complicated.”
The Labour leader said the fight over the next six weeks would be between the “elites” and the people.
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He hit out at “tax dodgers, bad bosses, big polluters, and billionaire-owned media holding our country back”.
Supporters chanted “not for sale” as he vowed to protect the NHS from a post-Brexit trade deal between the Tories and Donald Trump.
He also attacked Jo Swinson’s party of seeking to “divide us further” in a move to “cancel a democratic vote with a parliamentary stitch-up”.
Corbyn declined to directly answer a question on how he would vote in a referendum on a Labour Brexit deal and refused to say if he would resign if he lost a second General Election, instead saying “it’s not a presidential election”.
Meanwhile, Johnson vowed to deliver Brexit by January at the “absolute latest” if he gets back into Number 10 next month.
The Prime Minister, who had previously promised to take the UK out of Europe by the end of October “do or die,” said his failure to keep his promise was down to Parliament.
“There are just too many people who are basically opposed to Brexit, who want to frustrate it,” he told reporters during a visit to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.
“It was the mandate of the people. They voted by a pretty substantial majority to do this and Parliament has simply stood in their way.”
He said he had an “oven-ready” deal with Brussels which meant the UK would be out of the EU within a matter of weeks if the Conservatives were returned to power in the election on December 12.
“If you vote for us and we get our programme through – which we will because it’s oven-ready, it’s there to go – then we can be out at the absolute latest by January next year,” he said.
Labour’s launch risked being overshadowed by the continuing row over Keith Vaz.
READ MORE: Keith Vaz suspended for offering to buy cocaine for escorts
MPs yesterday backed a Committee on Standards report into his drug and sex scandal and banned the veteran politician from Parliament for six months.
However, he can still stand for election.
Shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, who is one of Vaz’s oldest friends, said the MP should “consider his position”.
Vaz was caught allegedly offering to buy cocaine for male escorts in 2016.
It was reported that he tried to keep his identity a secret by claiming he was a washing machine salesman called Jim.
Abbott told the BBC that Vaz “should agree not to be a candidate.”
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