Vote to make sure Scotland’s voice is heard - Tommy Sheppard

On tax, Brexit, spending plans, nuclear weapons, Gaza and so much else the two big parties are saying pretty much the same thing. So, it doesn’t look good. The answer is they’ll only make a difference if forced to.

That’s why I want to be in the new parliament. I want to tell them that the Tory spending plans won’t work, no matter who is executing them.

Why? Because the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies tells us these plans mean massive cuts in public services - £18 billion.

That means reducing budgets that are already overstretched. It means making it even harder for our NHS to deliver the health services people need.

It will also mean more than £1.5 billion cut in the Scottish block grant, creating a new financial nightmare for our public services here.

Instead, we need more funding for our NHS. And we need to abandon talk of privatisation. That’s why SNP MPs will propose a new law to stop it.

We also need Labour to get serious about the transition to renewable energy. This cannot be left to the private sector. We need government funding to make sure thousands of families are not thrown on the scrap heap as oil and gas decline and renewable energy expands further. We need government that puts its money where its mouth is.

Keir Starmer is so far ahead in England he is certain to win this election. He does not need Scotland’s votes to get into 10 Downing Street.

But Scotland needs independent voices in the new parliament to fight for what people here need, and to make sure we are not ignored.

The SNP only answers to the people of Scotland, no-one else. We will demand that your voice is heard.

And we will fight for your right to choose Scotland’s future, as an independent country in the European Union – a choice Tory and Labour would deny.

That is the choice in this election. Real change or more of the same. That’s why I’m asking for your vote on 4 July.