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Scottish Labour pledges faster GP appointments Dugdale accuses Sturgeon of 'arrogance'
(about 5 hours later)
Scottish Labour has said everyone in Scotland will be guaranteed a GP appointment within 48 hours if the party wins the Holyrood election. The Scottish Labour leader has accused Nicola Sturgeon of being "utterly arrogant" by "declaring victory" in the Holyrood election before a vote has been cast.
Party leader Kezia Dugdale will make the pledge in a speech to its one-day conference in Glasgow. Kezia Dugdale said the election was the "most interesting, exciting and important we have ever faced".
Ahead of the event, Ms Dugdale said it was "nonsense" to suggest she had conceded the election to the SNP. And she said new powers coming to Holyrood meant voters would "see who our leaders really are".
She was speaking in a BBC webcast that saw Ms Dugdale answer questions from viewers. Ms Dugdale was addressing delegates at the party's conference in Glasgow.
Ms Dugdale said she wanted to be first minister and was going into the election with the intention of winning, but said she would not resign if the party lost seats. She said a Scottish Labour government would invest £500m into primary care services over the next five years, and that everyone in Scotland would be guaranteed a GP appointment within 48 hours.
Opinion polls have suggested the SNP is on course to win the election on 5 May with an increased majority, with Labour and the Conservatives in a race for second. And she claimed Ms Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister and SNP leader, had positioned herself as the "great anti-austerity alternative, only to see her come home to force through the Tories' cuts in Scotland."
Ms Dugdale told the BBC's Daily Politics last month that she thought her party would finish second - an admission that some commentators regarded as a gaffe. She added: "Nicola Sturgeon keeps confidently announcing that Labour is only fighting for second place.
But in the webcast, which saw BBC Scotland political editor Brian Taylor put the questions to Ms Dugdale, she said: "I'm going into this election with the intention of winning. I don't like being in opposition; I want to govern. "Just think about what that means - she's already declared victory before any of us have cast a single vote. How utterly arrogant of her.
"I expect the Labour party to do well in this election. I want to be first minister. "We're here to tell the first minister that there are no foregone conclusions in a democracy."
"I want Nicola Sturgeon's desk, I want her chair, I want the possibility of power she has at her fingertips. 'New members'
"I'm aiming for that, but I'm committed to renewing the fortunes of the Scottish Labour Party over the longer term." Polls have suggested the SNP holds a commanding lead ahead of the election on 5 May, with Labour facing a strong challenge from the Conservatives for second place.
In her speech to the conference, Ms Dugdale is to pledge that a Scottish Labour government would "end the GP crisis created by the SNP and increase investment in primary care". Ms Dugdale admitted that last year's general election, which saw Labour left with just one MP in Scotland as the SNP won 56 of the 59 seats, was the most painful in her party's history.
She will also announce plans to guarantee every Scot an appointment at a GP surgery within 48 hours. But she said Scottish Labour had renewed itself since then, with a new leadership team, new candidates, "thousands of new members" and a "new vision" which the party would be taking to the country.
Ms Dugdale will say: "Labour will use our powers to offer a real plan for the future of our NHS. We will increase funding for the NHS year-on-year in real terms. She added: "This is the most interesting, exciting, important election we have ever faced. We are having new debates, unfamiliar to politicians in parties who have only answered the easy questions of how you spend money, and never the hard questions of how we raise it.
"Our Labour Party that established the NHS in the 1940s will be there to ensure that our health service is fit for the challenges of the 2040s." "People say this election is a foregone conclusion, that there is no interest in this campaign. They couldn't be more wrong.
'In his allotment' "This is the election where we will see who our leaders really are. Who will stop the cuts? Who will care more for the vulnerable? Who will invest in the future of our economy? Who will be bold, and who will just settle for more of the same?"
Jeremy Corbyn is not appearing at the conference. It is thought to be the first time since 1991 that the leader of the UK Labour Party has not attended the Scottish conference. Ms Dugdale said the debate over new powers for Holyrood was now over, with the question now over how those powers should be used.
Ms Dugdale said in the BBC webcast that it was "absolutely" her call that Mr Corbyn was not appearing, saying he had "accepted" it. She said Labour would use them to create a better NHS, more opportunities for young people, better housing, decent jobs and a "fair day's pay for a fair day's work".
She said: "He doesn't need to be there. I'm the leader, I'm in charge, and I'm going to detail my plans, our plans, for the future of the party." 'Real plan'
She added: "It's possible he'll be in his allotment." And she told party activists that Labour would increase funding for the NHS each year of the next parliament in real terms.
'Profoundly pro-European' She added: "Labour will use our powers to offer a real plan for the future of our NHS,
Ms Dugdale also said she would be willing to campaign alongside the SNP during the EU referendum, but said she would "really rather not" be "side by side" with the Conservatives after the "negative" after-effect of the Better Together campaign in the Scottish independence referendum. "Our Labour Party, that established the NHS in the 1940s, will be there to ensure that our health service is fit for the challenges of the 2040s.
She said: "We could certainly work with the SNP on the issue of Europe, we'd probably make almost identical arguments about why a union is a good thing. "Because the NHS isn't just another policy agenda for Labour - it is part of who we are as a party, our pride in its creation inspires everything else we do."
"We're both profoundly pro-European." She said investing on primary care would take pressure off hospitals, while her plan for the NHS would guarantee people an appointment at their local surgery within 48 hours, with the option of an online booking system.
However, on the Conservatives, she added: "I'd really rather not be in a position where we were side by side on a platform again. I've openly said that being seen side by side with the Tories had a negative effect on the Labour Party. Ms Dugdale also declared: "I am a socialist" as she set out her vision of a Scotland where "we can choose to be better as a society" and where "people aren't fated to be rich or poor".
"But what is really more important is winning the argument. I want to make a positive case for the EU. There will be a specific Labour case for the EU, and I'd like to focus on that." Earlier, a student teacher who said she was facing homelessness when her loan funding comes to an end urged Scots to vote Labour "because I need someone who is going to care for me, not neglect me".
Eireann McAuley, 18, was given a standing ovation by activists after she told of her struggle to escape poverty and create a better life for herself.
Ms McAuley, who is studying at Stirling University, told the audience that when her student loan funding comes to an end next month she may have to apply for temporary accommodation.
The teenager said: "I was predicted to fail my exams, I was predicted to make friends with my drug-dealer neighbour."
She sat her school exams while living in temporary accommodation in a homeless flat, she said, studying to get to university "though many thought this ambition was unrealistic".