By Liz S
So I am a tad confused or rather quite befuddled……..
Brian Leishman Labour MP for Alloa & Grangemouth is reported to now be suspended from the Labour party this afternoon “over breaching party discipline”
Yet only earlier today Leishman posted a tweet, together with a linked video, that showed him feeding a line to his -then- leader Keir Starmer at today’s PMQ’s to then allow his -then – leader to spout #SNPBAD and also allow his – then – leader to give a Masterclass in hypocrisy……….(as did Leishman).
I have again highlighted in bold both Leishman’s and Starmer’s brass neck and hypocrisy in their staged performance at today’s PMQ’s……
Leishman must also now have a -bright- red neck , as all of his cringey grovelling and servility to the ‘party’ at today’s PMQ’s was a waste of time for him …..thanks but no thanks Brian says Starmer……..as yer oot (fir noo that is).
There was Leishman, not that long ago, formerly pretending to play the Labour rebel, aka him trying to save his job , in him hoping to keep his constituents onside with him as their Labour MP, after he and his party betrayed most of them in breaking a promise that they, Labour, made to Grangemouth constituents prior to the 2024 GE.
Is Leishman now a ‘Rebel without a Cause’…..or a ‘Rebel without a party’ ? Who cares.
Leishman’s Tweet:
“Both myself and @Euan4Falkirk are working with the UK Government and Alexander Dennis to save Scottish bus manufacturing. Scotland needs more industry, not less”.
Here is the transcript of the video at PMQ’s :
Leishman asks- “On 11 June Alexander Dennis announced that it was planning to stop bus manufacturing in Scotland . My honourable friend from Falkirk and I have both met with the workers, the Trade Unions, the company and both UK & Scottish government Ministers to see how closure can by averted. Alexander Dennis needs commitment of orders for 2025 and 2026, and elected Mayors are ideally placed to do this. Our industrial strategy is right when it says where things are made and by whom matters. So can the PM assure Alexander Dennis and the workers that he believes bus manufacturing should have a future in Larbert and Falkirk” ?
(So Brian , would that be a different assurance to the one that Labour gave Grangemouth Refinery workers prior to the UK GE last year ? – asking on behalf of many of your constituents as we all know how that former Labour party assurance to them panned out, do we not)
(Also Brian , adding Mayors into Scottish politics will add yet another layer of government aka bureaucracy and so will then further dilute the powers of (and the money to) the Scottish government under devolution …which I assume is Labour HQ’s real cunning plan and so the true purpose in them wanting to have Mayors in Scotland- perhaps Mayors in Scotland , if pro UK, could also be yet another British Nationalist hostile force against the Scottish government, if we still have an SNP one).
Starmer’s response – “I’m grateful to him for raising this it is a deeply concerning time for the workers and their families in Falkirk . I do agree, and we are working with Mayors and local leaders to develop a pipeline of future orders for Zero omission buses and that’s an important aspect here . And the Minister of local transport is hosting an urgent meeting of the Bus Manufacturing expert panel. Mr speaker while Labour Mayors in England are ordering Scottish Buses the SNP are ordering Buses from China (big laughs in the House and Rachel Reeves shaking her head) just like they ordered ships from Turkey and Poland and not Scottish shipyards (big scowls directed at SNP from Rayner & Reeves) . The SNP should be backing Scottish workers”
(“working with Mayors & local leaders” ? What Mayors ? Also a Labour UK government , yet again , not working with the Scottish government. That’s so typical of Labour) .
(“Labour Mayors in England ordering Scottish Buses” but why ? Are there no English Bus Manufacturers ?)
Also Alexander Dennis is a subsidiary of a Canadian multinational Bus Manufacturer called NFI Group Inc who bought Alexander Dennis in May 2019.
The company intends that “Larbert was to be suspended, with plans also being consulted to shut down its factory in Falkirk in an effort to cut costs and ‘duplicate activities’. It is planned for all UK manufacturing to be consolidated in Scarborough, risking the loss of 400 jobs at Falkirk and Larbert, representing 22% of the Alexander Dennis workforce” .
The Scarborough factor being something that both Leishman and Starmer failed to mention at PMQ’s today when discussing this.
As to Starmer saying that the SNP “should be backing Scottish workers” .
Well Starmer is the UK PM and as the UK PM he failed to back , as in save, both “Scottish jobs” Grangemouth Oil Refinery & Welsh jobs at Port Talbot Steelworks .
However, Starmer as the Labour UK PM together with his Labour UK government, did their best to back and save jobs in England, in both Scunthorpe Steelworks & at a Lincolnshire Oil refinery .
Then at the end of the Leishman’s Video a picture comes up of Leishman with a message:
“Brian Leishman MP Honest Politics Scottish Labour”.
Though not Labour anymore Brian, as Starmer waited until after PMQ’s to drop that political bombshell on you (and also upon two others in Labour as well).
As for “Honest politics”, well I think you may find many voters would disagree with that ‘statement’……….was it not a tad dishonest of you to still pump Labour propaganda out while supposdley also ‘rebelling’ against the party…………and then also a tad dishonest of Starmer to allow you to do that today at PMQ’s and then also today he chose to dump you (suspend you) from the party (temporarily or permanently) thus making you look very weak and also a complete chump …..IMHO.
I guess if the (weak chump) cap fits , well you now just have to wear it Mr Leishman…..overdue surely…..maybe now also a time for your constituents to suspend from voting for your former party in all elections…..like maybe next year in Scotland ?
(I am a tad sceptical on this Leishman suspension….why did it take so so long for it to happen……….Hmm…..I write this while not wearing a tin foil hat Ha Ha).
Liz S
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
WHY ASK THE ENGLISH PMWHERE IS DEPUTY LABOUR WHO “SUPPOSEDLY” REPRESENTSALL THE UNIONIST PEOPLESent from my iPad
LikeLike
Starmer, ugh ugh, yes, but no, lolz!
LikeLiked by 2 people
He’s shutting down job centres in Scotland…just like the tax offices were clsoed by the EngGov a few years ago. I wonder where people in these areas of Scotland will have to travel to when they are told to attend interviews in order to claim ‘Universal credit’ etc, hmm.
LikeLiked by 4 people
When and why does the Scottish Government need to ”buy Scottish busses ” ?
The large bus companies in Scotland , like McGill’s and First Bus are as Anas Sarwar would confirm , private companies . The Scottish Tea-boy has stated that Governments can’t get involved in private commercial matters , n’est pas ?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Looks like it’s all theatre, they are playing games with the voters. It would be so easy to con the people into believing him, Leishman, cares one jot about Scottish jobs or industry, by faking ‘dissent’ and being suspended from the party, he will still take a huge wage from. Be interesting to see how long the suspension does last…hmm.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Some further background on Labour and ‘buses’:
From Hansard volume 760: Commons debate on Economic Growth, 21 January 2025
Rachel Reeves (Labour, Chancellor of the Exchequer): “A number of local authorities and, indeed, Labour mayors have raised with me bus procurement and the importance of buses for the local economy. I look forward to working with them, particularly David Skaith in York and North Yorkshire and Steve Rotheram in Liverpool, to boost bus services in communities, and particularly rural communities, to support jobs in the UK. At the Budget, I allocated more than £1 billion for local bus services, and that includes £712 million for local authorities to support and improve bus services in the next financial year.”
Presumably there’s been a Barnett consequential? But still no Block Grant Transparency report published for you and I to find out.
Later in the debate, from Alison Hume (Labour, Scarborough and Whitby): ‘The bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis builds innovative electric buses, employing 800 people in Scarborough. The Chancellor has spoken about the need for public procurement to take better account of employment and environmental standards. As bus services are brought back into the control of mayors and local authorities, will the Government use public procurement to back British companies such as Alexander Dennis to boost economic growth?
Rachel Reeves: ‘My hon. Friend is a good advocate for businesses, including Alexander Dennis in Scarborough. The Government will soon publish a new national procurement policy statement, which will set out our priorities for public procurement in support of our mission to grow the economy. In addition to the answer I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent North (David Williams), we recognise the importance of buses in growing our economy by getting people to work, but also the opportunities to use public procurement to buy more buses made in this country, supporting good jobs here in Britain.’
And from this local news source (4 April 2025): https://www.thisisthecoast.co.uk/news/local-news/uk-mayors-being-urged-to-buy-scarborough-buses/
‘UK Mayors Being Urged to Buy Scarborough Buses’: ‘Mayor’s across the UK are being urged to buy British buses when they look at moving to franchised bus systems. Many of the newly created regional Mayors have powers over public transport and many are looking at franchising models to provide more integrated transport systems.
‘Scarborough Councillor Liz Colling drew attention to the town’s own bus manufacturer during a discussion with the Chief Exec of the York and North Yorkshire Mayoral authority – James Farrar.
‘In January Alison Hume, the Member of Parliament for Scarborough and Whitby pressed the chancellor on whether the Government will “back British companies such as Scarborough’s Alexander Dennis to boost economic growth” through the use of public procurement. The company, which is a major employer in Scarborough, is the world’s largest manufacturer of double-decker buses and is Britain’s biggest bus builder. James Farrar says local manufacturers are being considered in the conversations.’
On October 9 2024 the same local news source had this headline: ‘MP Watching Developments at Whitby Mine and Scarborough Bus Firm’. It includes this extract from a statement from Alexander Dennis:
‘The company’s investment in people, products and facilities, as well as those made by other UK manufacturers to strengthen the domestic manufacturing base are currently not honoured by government policies that would reward the higher wages paid and better employment rights offered in the UK. Companies have been put at a disadvantage by policies that actively underpin and encourage an uneven playing field working against British bus manufacturers. (my emphasis)
‘Import duties are often used to incentivise investment in domestic products and jobs, ensuring they are not undercut by lower-paying and lower-security roles elsewhere, yet the 10% tariff applied to electric buses is even lower than the 16% rate for equivalent diesel vehicles. While many countries increasingly employ trade remedy measures to promote domestic manufacturing industries, there is yet to be any such action in the UK.
‘Despite various stated political ambitions to support local businesses, supply chains and communities, authorities are prevented from considering such wider benefits due to the subsidy control legal framework, underpinned by the Subsidy Control Act 2022. This sets out requirements and prohibitions which include an inability to grant subsidy that gives any additional consideration or weighting to domestic manufacturers over any non-domestic provider.’ (This is Westminster legislation applying across the UK.)
The statement goes on: ‘In Scotland, UK-based vehicle manufacturers are at an additional disadvantage when in direct or indirect receipt of Scottish Government funding as they must adhere to advanced Fair Work First standards of employee remuneration, welfare and safety, while no such requirement is made of suppliers whose production takes place in other countries. Neither are bus operators incentivised or rewarded for choosing companies that meet Fair Work First standards when funding is awarded. This not only puts domestic manufacturers at further competitive disadvantage, but also undermines the value of this flagship policy as government-funded work is shipped offshore.”
So in England, Alexander Dennis does NOT have to ‘adhere to (such) advanced Fair Work standards’?
LikeLiked by 2 people
I wonder if there are grants and incentives for Alexander Dennis to shift production down to England?
If it is a fact, and the move happens, then the Scottish government should offer a site for Chinese bus manufacture to base themselves at.
gavinochiltree
LikeLiked by 2 people