The Scottish Socialist Party candidate Bill Bonnar is now officially in the race to become MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West.
SSP Campaign Manager Richie Venton said:
“On 5th October, the people of Rutherglen, Cambuslang, Blantyre, and Hamilton have the opportunity to reject all careerist politicians who will grab the MP’s salary of £87,000 with both hands, and instead vote for a principled, lifelong socialist and trade unionist, Bill Bonnar, who will only take the average local worker’s wage of about £30,000.
“If elected, Bill will donate the remainder of the £87,000 to workers’ strike hardship funds, community organisations, and socialist campaigns. We are delighted to have a candidate who will stand up for workers, trade unionists, and young people, against all the parties of the rich and big business.”
After lodging his nomination papers Bill Bonnar said:
“I’m honoured to represent the Scottish Socialist Party, and pledge to the people of this area to fight might and main for a massive redistribution of wealth from the rich to the rest of us, to combat the crimes of poverty and inequality in this, the fifth-richest economy on Earth. It’s criminal that 1.3 million Scots literally cannot afford to live, due to poverty pay, basement level benefits, and the lowest state pensions of any country in Europe.
“The SSP will be campaigning for a package of concrete measures to use the wealth of Scotland for the benefit of its people, not for the profits of a handful of billionaires, millionaires and big business.
“We will continue our campaign for free public transport for all, taking bus services and train companies into a publicly-owned People’s Transport Service – which would save local workers at least £27 a week – £1,400 a year – in bus fares just to get to work. We oppose punitive measures that hammer the lowest-paid, and fight for the only real solution to pollution which also combats poverty – an expanded, reliable public transport service that is free at the point of use.
“The SSP will highlight other measures that would transform working-class people’s lives, like a guaranteed £15-an-hour minimum wage from the age of 16, scrapping the lower youth rates; abolition of all zero hours contracts and their replacement with a guaranteed minimum 16-hour week for every worker who wants one; abolition of the child benefits cap and bedroom tax, which the Tories imposed and Labour will keep; public ownership of the big construction companies to build 100,000 environmentally advanced council houses at affordable rents; nationalisation of all forms of energy to end profiteering, provide clean, green affordable energy, and lay the grounds for a rapid transition to green energy production, led by energy workers themselves, which our research proves would create at least 70,000 new green jobs.
“Instead of taxpayers in this area forking out £8 for every £1 borrowed to build the University Hospital Wishaw, under the privatisation schemes used by both Labour and the SNP, we are demanding cancellation of these PFI rackets, to plough the savings into our cherished but crisis-stricken NHS, to cut waiting lists.
“There’s plenty of wealth in this nation, but all the mainstream parties and their candidates want to leave the bulk of that wealth in the hands of the rich.
“Starmer’s Labour Party have made plain they will change absolutely nothing after 13 years of ruinous rule by the Tories. A Labour government will keep the same poverty pay, the same repressive anti-union laws, the same benefits cuts, bedroom tax and decimation of public services; they’ve repeatedly stated they will stick to Tory public spending limits.
“My appeal to people hungry for change, desperate to see the back of the Tories, is not to waste your vote on any of the parties of the rich and big business. Vote for the party rooted in the working class, in the trade unions and communities – the Scottish Socialist Party.”
For more information, or to interview Bill Bonnar, contact SSP Campaign Manager Richie Venton on 07828278093 or richieventon@hotmail.com