'What's the point in Labour?' Nicola Sturgeon attacks Jeremy Corbyn's 'deeply divided' party

Scotland's First Minister says that despite sharing common ground on several issues, Jeremy Corbyn presided over a party that was too “deeply divided” to offer a serious platform for government

Nicola Sturgeon said Labour was too 'deeply divided' to offer a (PA)

Nicola Sturgeon’s new strategy for attacking Labour can be summed up by her question asking Scots: “What’s the point of voting Labour?”

Scotland’s First Minister told the Today programme that despite sharing the same opinion as Jeremy Corbyn on a number of issues he was leading a party that was too “deeply divided” to offer a serious platform for government.

Opposition to the Conservative government’s austerity drive, the renewal of Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent and intervention in Syria were three areas where the SNP and the Labour leader shared common ground, Ms Sturgeon said.

But she added that on all of these issues he “can’t carry his party behind his views” and therefore there was “not a lot of point in the Labour party”.

She was speaking a day after launching a scathing attack on Mr Corbyn’s leadership, saying he had made Labour “unreliable, unelectable and unable” to fight the Tories.

Speaking this morning, Ms Sturgeon said: “Jeremy Corbyn I think shares some of the same views as the SNP; he’s got views that we don’t share but on austerity, on Trident yes I certainly hope that we can work constructively with Jermy Corbyn.

“But I think his big problem though is although he holds these views – and we saw this very starkly this week – he can’t carry his party behind his views and there’s not a lot of point in the Labour party.

Asked whether she thought he would last long as Labour leader, she said: “I don’t know whether he can survive but I don’t think he can unite Labour.

“He's not uniting Labour on Trident, on the economy, even on air strikes on Syria – on all of these big issues of the day. Labour is deeply divided and it may be the oldest political cliché in the book but divided parties don't win elections.

“And for people in Scotland, and am sure will be the case for people across the UK, if they don't see Jeremy Corbyn being able to unite Labour to become a credible alternative government then what's the point of voting Labour?”