STATEMENT:

I am standing to lead Scottish Labour because I believe our party can once again be the great force for change in Scotland – rooted in every place, confident in our values, and capable of earning the trust of the country.

I am rooted in Labour. I grew up in Dundee in a family of Labour trade unionists. My great-grandfather helped found the ILP in the city and the Jute and Flax Workers Union. As a child, I marched alongside my parents and sister under the banner of the EIS. My grandmother was one of seven children who slept in one room. When she was chosen to go to college, her brothers and sisters put money into the tin each week to pay for her education. That opportunity changed her life, and in doing so changed mine.

That is what Labour politics means to me: using our collective strength to give people opportunities that would otherwise be denied to them.

That purpose has taken me from working on anti-poverty programmes for Oxfam, to serving as a councillor in Dundee, founding a charity tackling child poverty, working in higher education and, for the past five years, representing North East Scotland in Parliament.

The result of the recent election hurt deeply. It hurt our candidates and activists who gave everything, but most importantly it hurt because communities across Scotland desperately need change.

We cannot simply do the same things in the next five year as we did in the last.

This contest must therefore be about more than changing the person at the top. We now need to change the party and how we work and how confidently we make the case for Labour values.

I have set out plans to devolve power across our party, to put jobs and Scotland’s workers at the heart of our energy policy, to rebuild education as a central Labour cause, and to create a stronger economy in every part of Scotland. It must also be about the better delivery of our public services, with a relentless focus on improving our NHS and radical action to tackle the scourge of child poverty which blights so many young lives.

But renewal is about more than individual policies. It is about rebuilding a movement that belongs to its members, trade unions, and communities.

I believe leadership must unite our Labour family, all our activists, councillors, MSPs, MPs and trade unionists, around a shared purpose. That will require someone with the experience and ideas to make that a reality.

I am not standing to manage decline or simply describe Scotland’s problems. I am standing because I believe Scottish Labour can deliver change in every place.

Together, we can renew our party, rediscover our moral purpose and build a Labour Party rooted in Scotland and ready to lead it.

I am asking you to vote for me to be the next leader of the Scottish Labour Party, and to help me build that future together.