Labour bread-and-butter pitch plays well in North West, says candidate

John Robertson believes his message of bread-and-butter issues to the people of Glasgow North West will see him returned as the constituency’s MP.
‘We went everywhere in the constituency. We took our message with us, put out our leaflets, we were in every polling station and we knocked on as many door as we could.
‘Where was the opposition? They didn’t do anything – and if you treat the electorate with contempt don’t be surprised if they bite you back.’
John said there were two main issues that resonated with people in Glasgow North. One was the possibility of return to a Conservative Westminster government.
‘People who had lived through the 1980s, older people especially, told me “You can’t allow this man (Conservative Leader David Cameron) to win. I’m not going back to what is was like back then”.
‘The other issue came from young mothers, more than a few of whom are worried about Child Tax Credits. Single mothers, married mothers, are worried they might lose their tax credits. The Tories are saying they’ll stick by them but everything’s up for review.
‘These people cannot afford to work unless they get tax credits and get help with their childminding. If they can’t get help, they can’t get work.’
John added candidly: ‘We’ve taken a bit of a doing on pensions and people want to blame someone. Having said that, when you go into the detail of what’s happened to pensioners, particularly pensioners in poorer areas, they realise all the extra bits (allowances) they have and they don’t want to give them up. They don’t want them consolidated into their pension because that’s what takes them out of the poverty trap.’
On the broader picture, John believes ‘the SNP have been decimated’.
‘I don’t expect them all to come back to us,’ he said. ‘I noticed in some ballot boxes the Tories were coming second, a very poor second – and even that I didn’t expect.’