In 100 days we can vote for the change Scotland badly needs

Scotland badly needs change. We can’t wait any longer for it. In 100 days we will have the opportunity to vote for that change.

Scottish Labour will fight the General Election promising change that only we can deliver.

A mansion tax on properties worth more than £2 million, the vast majority of which are in the South East of England, to provide funds for a thousand more nurses in the Scottish NHS.

Re-regulation of the energy market.

A rising minimum wage.

A 50p top rate of tax so those with the broadest shoulders pay more.

All things which only Scottish Labour can deliver because only Labour is strong enough in every part of the UK.

The biggest change Scotland needs, though, is a change of government. We urgently need to get rid of David Cameron and George Osborne. That will be the most important consideration for most Scottish voters when we fill out our ballots on 7 May.

The simple truth is that either Labour or the Tories will form the next UK Government. The SNP cannot win the General Election standing in only 59 of 650 constituencies across the UK. The SNP cannot win, but they can help David Cameron return to Downing Street by accident.

Over the next 100 days the SNP will pretend that the General Election is pick-and-mix. They will pretend that in Scotland we can choose which combination of Scottish Labour and SNP MPs we elect. That no-matter if we vote Labour or SNP our votes will be used to get rid of the Tories. This simply isn’t true.

It will be the biggest single party that gets to form the next UK Government – everyone knows that will be either Labour or Tory. The combined total of Labour and SNP MPs can be more than the number of Tory MPs and we would still have a Tory Government. The arithmetic that matters is whether the Tories have more MPs than Labour. Any MP the SNP take off Labour’s total makes it more likely that the Tories will get back into Downing Street.

We have a choice in May. We can send SNP representatives to the House of Commons to protest against a Tory Government or we can send Scottish Labour representatives who will send the Tory Government packing. We need that change too much to risk a protest vote.

When you hold the pencil over your ballot paper in 100 days’ time, ask yourself a question: who does David Cameron want you to vote for? Will your vote make it more or less likely to send him packing?

Jim Murphy is leader of the Scottish Labour Party the MP for East Renfrewshire