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Jeremy Corbyn is targeting 18 seats held by the SNP in his bid to win the keys to Downing Street.

The Labour leader will tour key marginal seats in Scotland next month as he continues to prepare for the possibility of another election.

The party stunned observers in last month’s general election by winning six seats from the SNP and slashing the nationalists’ majority in constituencies across the country.

Strategists believe they could pick up several more Scottish seats in a future election.

(Image: SWNS)

Corbyn will visit seats across the central belt and further afield, including the Western Isles, where sitting SNP MPs have small majorities.

Of the 64 seats Labour needs to win to secure a majority at Westminster, 18 are in Scotland.

This includes Glasgow South West, Glasgow East, Airdrie and Shotts, Lanark and Hamilton East, Motherwell and Wishaw, Inverclyde and Dunfermline and West Fife where swings of less than 1 per cent are required.

Corbyn said: “Under Labour, Scotland will have a government that works for the many not the few.

“Labour remains on an election footing as a government-in-waiting, ready to end failed austerity and ensure Scotland has the resources it needs to provide the public services its people deserve.

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“Labour has the policies to build a fairer Scotland, with a £10-an-hour minimum wage, a ban on zero hour contracts, a Brexit deal that puts jobs first, and taxing big corporations and the richest individuals a bit more to fund our schools, hospitals, emergency services and social care.

“I want to live in a country that nurtures the next generation and gives our elderly the security and dignity they deserve after a lifetime of contribution to our society.

“Unlike the SNP and the Tories, Labour will transform our economy through investment, insisting the true wealth creators – that means all of us – benefit from it.

(Image: © SWNS.com)

“The only way to remove the Conservatives from Downing Street, and have a government that works for the many, not the few, is to back Labour in Scotland.”

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale added: “After more than a decade in power in Scotland, the SNP is presiding over a struggling economy, while schools have thousands of fewer teachers, and NHS workers are under-valued and over-stretched.

“And the SNP can’t remove the Tories from office – only Labour can do that. I look forward to joining Jeremy in August as we take our message to the people of Scotland.”