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Bernie Sanders has told how the Scottish Government’s Amazon crackdown has inspired his fight for workers’ rights around the world.

The former US presidential hopeful spoke to the Sunday Mail days after he tweeted our story about Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish Government cutting public funding to the internet shopping giants to his 8.9million followers.

Our exclusive last week revealed that Amazon will have to pay workers the Living Wage of £8.75 an hour if they want to access public cash in the future.

And Sanders, who ran for president in 2016, has now called on America to follow Scotland’s lead.

(Image: SWNS.com)

He said: “If Scotland can demand that Amazon get off corporate welfare and pay its workers a living wage, then so can the United States.

“The bottom line is Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, should not be getting richer off the backs of taxpayers in any country while paying workers so little that they struggle to survive. We must keep fighting for workers everywhere.”

The left-wing senator released a statement to us after tweeting our story on Thursday.

His social media post said: “Now is the time for people to come together around the world to take on the greed of the oligarchs.”

(Image: AFP)

We reported last week how new criteria being implemented by Scottish Enterprise will exclude low-wage employers from regional selective assistance grants.

Amazon owner Bezos – worth £125billion – has consistently refused to pay workers in Fife and Inverclyde the Living Wage Foundation approved rate, despite having been handed at least £3.5million since 2007.

Fair Work Minister Jamie Hepburn said: “We welcome Senator Sanders’s support for the Scottish Government’s approach to promoting fairness in the workplace and our efforts to ensure everyone in Scotland is fairly and properly rewarded for the work they do.”

One former worker at Amazon’s Glenrothes plant said: “If public money is being given out, then it should be a condition that they pay the living wage as an absolute minimum.”

An Amazon spokesman said: “We are proud to be a significant contributor to the economy in Scotland, including investing hundreds of millions of pounds in our Scottish operations over the past five years and today supporting around 2500 competitively paid jobs.”