The SNP candidate for Glasgow Central, Osama Saeed, has welcomed the official start of the general election campaign, although noting that Gordon Brown had no alternative to hearing the judgement of the public now.

He said the election in the constituency was between an SNP MP championing Glasgow, or a Labour MP championing savage cuts in Glasgow's jobs and services.

Osama Saeed said his message to the people of Glasgow Central was: "This election is not about whether Gordon Brown or David Cameron will be prime minister. And it’s not just because there is no difference between them.

"You are voting for your local MP. A champion for you and Glasgow.

"I cannot believe Labour candidates are again going to the public making great play of how they will sit on the backbenches waving through whatever the prime minister wants. In recent years this has given us an illegal and immoral war in Iraq, higher taxes on the lowest paid, the closure of local post offices, and no link between pensions and earnings.

"My contract with you is that I will strive to protect Glasgow’s services in the face of the cuts Labour has promised will be “deeper and tougher” than Thatcher’s. I want to see the £100bn for new nuclear weapons on the River Clyde, and £18bn for putting your biometrics on a computer database, spent instead on jobs, particularly in green industries."

Note:

Glasgow Central is considered a two-way contest between the SNP and Labour, with the former finishing just 136 votes behind in last year's European elections, the SNP's best ever showing in an all-UK election.