Paul Sweeney MSP

Every 6 hours in Scotland, someone dies of a preventable drug related death. We have the worst drug death rate in Europe & without action it will only get worse. That's why I have launched my Bill consultation in @ScotParl to establish Overdose Prevention Centres. Watch 👇👇

It was great being back in the Scottish Parliament this week and I'm excited to get stuck into work, serving the people of Glasgow.

Scottish Labour's fantastic MSPs will spend this term working tirelessly to deliver for their communities and for Scotland.

As a former member of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, I am ashamed by the crass refusal by Glasgow City Council to grant the Freedom of the City of Glasgow to the Regiment on its 20th anniversary. There are hundreds of serving and former members who are Glaswegian. We lost friends in Afghanistan and Iraq. Half of Scotland’s 32 local authorities have already granted Freedom status to the Royal Regiment of Scotland. Next month, the Regiment will receive the Freedom of Dundee. I hope Glasgow City Council will reflect on this tone deaf decision and reconsider it.

The new Parliamentary session is underway and Scottish Labour's MSP group is already working to deliver for Scotland.

The Regiment will receive the Freedom of Inverclyde this summer so it can't be that difficult...

Today @GlasgowCC refused ‘Freedom of The City ‘ to our brave men and women @The_SCOTS on their 20 th Anniversary. Our Veterans and warriors have been let down by a @theSNP council. Our great men and women are not pawns or political fodder. @JohnSwinney I hope you intervene on this national disgrace. We have MSP like @PaulJSweeney who served in this regiment . I suggest as a FM of ‘All’ the people you meet Paul and get the leadership of GCC Telt! It is an absolute tragic and embarrassing decision. #PeopleMakeGlasgow.

I can confirm that I will be requesting the permission of the NEC to stand in the Makerfield by-election. I grew up in this area and have lived here for 25 years. I care deeply about it and its people. I know they have been let down by national politics. Ten years ago, I decided to leave Westminster. Why? Because, after 16 years, I came to the conclusion that our national political system does not work for areas like ours. I learnt this fighting its failure to invest in the Wigan borough, for justice for the Hillsborough families and against its treatment of Greater Manchester during the pandemic. Over the last decade, I have been challenging this failure from the outside and building a new and better way of doing politics. We have built Greater Manchester into the fastest-growing city-region in the UK and put buses back under public control, introducing a £2 fare cap to help people with cost-of-living pressures. However, there is only so much that can be done from Greater Manchester. Much bigger change is needed at a national level if everyday life is to be made more affordable again. This is why I now seek people’s support to return to Parliament: to bring the change we have brought to Greater Manchester to the whole of the UK and make politics work properly for people. Millions are struggling and they need the Labour Government to succeed. It has already made changes to make life better for them in its first two years. After this week, we owe it to people to come back together as a Labour movement, giving the Prime Minister and the Government the space and stability they need as the by-election takes place. I want to recognise the difficult decision taken by Josh Simons and the sacrifice he and his family are making. I have worked closely with him as Mayor on issues like flooding and illegal waste dumping and have seen first-hand how effective he has been. He has put the communities of Makerfield first, made a real difference for them and should take great pride in that. Finally, I truly do not take a single vote for granted and will work hard to regain the trust of people in the Makerfield constituency, many of whom have long supported our party but lost faith in recent times. We will change Labour for the better and make it a party you can believe in again. ENDS

It is an honour to be sworn in to the Scottish Parliament today as a Labour and Co-operative MSP for Glasgow. It has been an absolute privilege to represent the city, and I look forward to getting back to work serving the people of Glasgow.

For decades, Westminster has overseen the managed decline of towns like mine. We have talked big, then acted small, stuck in a politics of incrementalism that cannot meet the moment. We have lost the trust of those our party was built to serve. It is my unwavering belief that nothing short of urgent, radical, courageous reform will make a difference. That must start with a change in leadership. Today, I am putting the people I represent and the country I love first and will be resigning as MP for Makerfield. I am standing aside so that Andy Burnham can return to his home, fight to re-enter Parliament, and if elected, drive the change our country is crying out for. This has not been an easy decision. This is my family’s home, where only a few weeks ago, doctors and nurses at Wigan Infirmary saved our newborn son’s life. But we all must make choices and in recent days I found myself with a difficult one: defend the status quo or step forward and act. I have made my choice. I am in politics because politics is how you change lives for the better. My party has one last chance to do that: deliver for the people and places I represent, drive economic growth, secure our borders, reform our state and politics, and change a status quo that is not working. That is the fight. I believe Andy is the one to lead it.

Astonishing that @GlasgowCC has voted to deny the @The_SCOTS Freedom of the City of Glasgow, breaking a tradition that Glasgow has had for generations. Apparently giving organisations Freedom of the City is “inherently problematic” according the Glasgow SNP group.

This is promising and it’s something that should become standard

Today feels like a good day to ask: what actually is Manchesterism? That's the question @b_judah & I try to answer in our latest piece for @ArguablyMag. Manchesterism as attractive as it is protean. In a Labour Party desperate for a rallying philosophy, Manchesterism evokes solidity, grounded in the concreteness of a city, while remaining open to interpretation. Manchester is a rare modern British success story. Since 2015, the city’s GDP growth has averaged 3.1 per cent each year, double the UK average, and outpacing the US over the same period. But people disagree about the causes of Manchester’s success. There are several competing stories: 🌽 the free trade one: Manchester Liberalism opposed the Corn Laws and advocated free trade. More recently, the city has courted Gulf investors and leased public land to private developers. 🚰 the municipal socialism one: which points to Manchester's early success in centrally controlling key utilities 🏗️ the YIMBY one: Manchester has shown a willingness & ability to build far more than other UK cities, not just homes, but also transport. 🗺️ the devo one: almost everyone agrees that devolution has been good for Manchester. But what's the mechanism here, and can it be replicated elsewhere? There is truth in all of these stories. Manchester’s economic and political history embodies contradictions that do not lend themselves to a single overarching political philosophy. If there is one unifying theme, it is dynamism: Manchester has repeatedly adjusted and reinvented itself and made the most of its autonomy. What can the rest of the country learn from Manchester's success? Read the full piece here: arguably.uk/p/what-can-wes…

@FurloughDaddy I spoke about it recently. x.com/i/status/20437…

@PaulJSweeney Any plans for the old abandoned school in Dennistoun? The new terraced houses across the street sold for near half a million, yet look onto one of the bleakest sights in the whole of Glasgow...

I have been lobbying for years to secure funds to restore these tenement blocks on Stonyhurst Street in Possilpark. I'm pleased that the funding has now been secured. There is a derelict tenement block in private ownership further up Saracen Street that also needs intervention.

@redandwhite1874 @DamianTrow87502 February 2026... theguardian.com/politics/2026/…

@PaulJSweeney @DamianTrow87502 You've tilted towards the Nats and knived a Labour PM in the 7 days since being elected under a Starmer Labour and anti Nat manifesto. That's some going. Chase these disloyal voters if u please. Don't expect folk like me to stay still in the meantime.

@redandwhite1874 @DamianTrow87502 You can listen here, where I discussed the concept with Bernard Ponsonby, on the Sunday before the election. open.spotify.com/episode/3T1vhe…

@redandwhite1874 @DamianTrow87502 You have clearly not understood what I actually suggested. Tens of thousands of Labour voters in Glasgow have just refused to vote Labour. I know as I spoke to thousands of them over the last six months. They were quite clear about their reasons for that.

@redandwhite1874 @DamianTrow87502 There is fine line between loyalty and delusion. Decoupling the perennial constitutional debate from the electoral cycle is not pandering to the Nats, quite the contrary actually. And at least I am memorable.

@PaulJSweeney @DamianTrow87502 And i merely stated the obvious, your lack of loyalty and pandering to the Nats will be remembered. Its a 2 way street. You make your choices, and actual Labour loyalists will make ours.