Dugdale says she is aware of the challenges for Scottish Labour after meeting with Shadow Cabinet

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale says she is aware of the challenges the party faces ahead of May’s Holyrood elections, but has reaffirmed her commitment to running a positive campaign with a “confident vision”.

Dugdale addressed the UK Labour Shadow Cabinet this morning about the party’s campaigning in Scotland in the run-up to the upcoming election, after a briefing to the party’s top team last last week warned of significant losses.

Speaking after the meeting, Dugdale said that while she recognised that the SNP say they want to tackle inequality in schools, but said their cuts to local budgets would hit services like schools and childcare.

On the discussion at Shadow Cabinet, she said: “We had a positive discussion today about Labour’s campaign for the Holyrood election in May. Shadow Cabinet members were left in no doubt at all that I will run an upbeat campaign with confidence in Labour’s vision for Scotland.

She added: “The choice facing voters in Scotland is clear – we can use the new powers to do things differently and invest in future generations under Labour, or we can carry on with cuts to school budgets with the SNP and the Tories.”

Dugdale also said that newly devolved powers to the Scottish Parliament will irrevocably change the nature of Scottish politics.

“Those who don’t live and breathe Scottish politics every single day may not be aware of the significance of the major new powers coming to Scotland,” she said. “They will fundamentally change Scottish politics forever. The days of politicians in Scotland saying they are for something but complaining about a lack of real power to force change are at an end.

“Those of us who say we are against cuts to childcare and school budgets now have the power to do something about it. We are entering an age of real financial accountability in Scottish politics.”

She also laid out Scottish Labour’s plans to invest in a new Fair Start Fund, and spelled out how they intended to pay for the scheme.

“Labour and the SNP both say we want to close the gap between the richest and the rest in our schools. I have set out a plan to establish a Fair Start Fund, with primary schools receiving £1,000 for every child from a deprived background. That money would go direct to head teachers to tackle the attainment gap. We would fund this plan by increasing the top rate of tax for the richest few earning more than £150,000 to 50p.

“This is a bold plan from Labour to give young people the best chance in life, using the new powers to make difficult choices. The SNP say they want to do the same but are cutting half a billion pounds from local budgets providing services like schools and childcare.”

And Dugdale set out the pitch that only Labour were offering to be the ‘change’ option on the ballots this May, fighting to protect schools standards and the NHS.

“The First Minister said she wanted to fight this election on the SNP’s record in government. That is exactly what we will do. Our public services are suffering under the SNP, with school standards slipping and cuts being proposed in our NHS.

“Only Labour is offering real change at this election. I am aware of the challenges we face in May, but we have a confident vision for our country. We want to create a Scotland where a young person’s ability to get on in life is determined by their potential, ambition and work rate, not by how much money their parents earn. That’s a vision shared by the whole UK Shadow Cabinet and I look forward to working with them on the campaign trail.”