Earlier this week, I took part in Scottish Labour’s first hustings of this leadership election. The room brought together members, CLP officers, trade unionists, parliamentarians, and affiliate members all of whom are the very lifeblood of our party. It is clear to me that the only way back for Scottish Labour is to use the vast breadth of ideas, local knowledge, and talent of all who make up our movement.
Leadership cannot be about one person alone. Rebuilding Scottish Labour has to be a collective effort, rooted in unity, hope and a shared sense of purpose. I am standing for leader because I believe we must bring our movement together, renew our party and refocus ourselves on Labour’s moral purpose: building a better, more equal nation and passing it on to the generations that follow.
I grew up in a family of Labour trade unionists in Dundee. I studied at the University of Glasgow and the London School of Economics before working on anti-poverty programmes for Oxfam. I later served as a councillor in my home city, founded a charity focused on tackling child poverty, and spent a decade working in leadership roles in higher education. For the past five years, I have represented North East Scotland in the Scottish Parliament.
I am rooted in Labour and I am ready to lead. My experience is how I know that the solutions to the issues that we are facing exist within our movement. That is why I set out clearly at the hustings my plans to devolve power and resources across our party. My plan Giving Our Party Back to Our Members (here) will do exactly this, and give members and affiliates a stronger voice in how we organise, campaign, and develop policy. That is a politics of people and place and never again should we have a one size fits all political agenda. What works in Aberdeen may not work in Glasgow, what works in Edinburgh may not work in Ayrshire. The people best place to know what works are the people who know their places.
Across Scotland, people are seeing the consequences of years of weak growth and pressure on our public services. NHS waiting times remain far too high, educational outcomes have declined, social care is under enormous strain across the UK, and families continue to feel the pressure of the cost of living. At the same time, too many communities have been denied the investment and economic opportunities they need.
These challenges are connected. Strong public services help people participate fully in our economy, support productivity and widen opportunity, while a growing economy provides the resources we need to invest in those services. Scotland cannot afford to treat economic renewal and the reform of our public services as separate tasks. We have to address both together.
For too long, Scottish Labour has been more comfortable describing the symptoms of these failures than setting out how we would change them. That has to end. We need a policy platform which connects economic growth with stronger public services and shows people, clearly and practically, what Labour would do differently. The first test of this are the local authority elections next year.
These elections are pivotal for us and our communities. They are the next major electoral test facing Scottish Labour, but more importantly they will determine who is making decisions about many of the services people rely on every day. After years of pressure on council budgets, these elections are about protecting and improving local services, rebuilding capacity in our communities and showing what Labour can deliver in power. We cannot approach them as though every part of Scotland is the same or impose a single campaign from the centre. Councillors are best placed to know what will work in their areas, and they know the records of delivery they have to take to the doorstep. We have to give them the power and resources they need.
And in the Scottish Parliament we must start fighting to deliver change now, using our influence to push the SNP to go further and faster on our priorities. Also, for the first time in many years, there is a chance to work closely with the Labour UK Government to make reform to Scotland’s economy and public services a reality. I have the relationships and the reputation to make this work. This is why I have the most support of any leadership candidate from our MPs and I am best placed to ensure that we are working closely together to deliver for Scotland.
Renewal cannot simply mean changing the person at the top. It must mean changing how our party works, rebuilding our relationship with the communities we seek to represent, and once again demonstrating that Labour can deliver meaningful change in people’s lives.
We should be ambitious about the Scotland we want to build, but we cannot ask people to wait until 2031 for us to start building it. We must use every lever available to us now, while renewing our movement for the future.
That is the task ahead of us. And it is one we must undertake together.
This is the first of a series, Progress have approached all leadership hopefuls for comment.
