Labour’s team of candidates for the council elections on May 3rd were joined by Iain Gray MSP, Fiona O’Donnell MP and Anas Sarwar MP, Deputy Leader of Scottish Labour at the Flag Heritage Centre, Athelstaneford to launch their manifesto for East Lothian.

Cllr Willie Innes said:

“We have come to the heart of East Lothian where Scotland’s flag appeared, because we want to put Labour values of fairness and social justice at the heart of East Lothian again. We have a great team of candidates, a third of whom are women, who all believe that East Lothian is the best county in Scotland, but want passionately to make it better still.

“We are offering county voters a plan to make East Lothian better. We have a plan to get the county working, a plan to let our communities flourish, a plan to give our young people the best start possible, and a plan to look after our people.

“Labour will make sure that more council contracts are spent locally, providing jobs and training for local people. We will give our towns and villages more power over council services in their communities, and give our schools budgets for their local priorities. We will guarantee nursery provision and create children’s centres to invest in our future generations, and end the erosion of care services for our elderly citizens.

“East Lothian has been ill served by the SNP/Lib dem coalition. The botched reorganisation last week is only the latest in a line of mistakes from the closure of Cockenzie house nursing home to cuts in bus services, to the privatisation of care provision. They have cut teachers in our schools, and took five years to come up with a plan for older people. SNP and Lib dem councillors spend more time arguing about who will be their leader, who will get plum jobs, or jumping from party to party than they do serving the interests of the public.

“Their vision of East Lothian as a “rural idyll” means they have sat back while unemployment soars, doing nothing to create jobs and spending £100m a year on contracts outside East Lothian.”

Anas Sarwar MP said:

“This campaign has taken me to every part of Scotland, but I have never been anywhere more beautiful than East Lothian on a sunny day. I know that Labour’s team have a great plan for a brighter future for the County.”

Labour is standing candidates in all seven wards in East Lothian.