‘Michael Marra: Why I’m standing to lead Scottish Labour’

This is the first of our pitches from those standing to be the leader of Scottish Labour. LabourList has approached all declared candidates to give them the same opportunity to make their case. 

Labour is at our best when we give people hope that tomorrow can be better than today. Across Scotland, too many people have lost that sense of hope. Folk are struggling to enjoy the simple joys of life – a holiday once a year, a pint once a week. Their hospitals are struggling with demand and opportunities for their kids are narrowing.

Despite 20 years of SNP government, they did not trust Scottish Labour had the answers to change that. Just as we have done at the last six Holyrood elections, we went backwards.

“Devolution is a process not an event” said Ron Davis, the Welsh Secretary and architect of devolution in Wales in the last Labour government.

For Scottish Labour that process has been one of consistent decline. Scotland’s historic party of progress keeps going backwards at Holyrood. We have never increased our seat tally at a Scottish parliament election.

That has to change. It is why I am standing to lead the Scottish Labour Party.

These problems are deep rooted and longstanding. They won’t be fixed by tweaking a manifesto or changing a slogan. It means renewing our party as a moral crusade.

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I’m rooted in Labour values and I’m ready to lead our party by bringing it together and renewing it for the challenges of the 2030s and beyond.

I was raised in a working-class family in Dundee by two schoolteachers who were active trade unionists. Around our kitchen table, politics wasn’t about personalities or slogans. It was about fairness, solidarity, dignity at work and the belief that government should expand opportunity for ordinary people.

Those values have shaped every part of my life. That’s why I spent my career before elected politics as an anti-poverty campaigner for Oxfam.

This contest is about more than choosing a new leader. It is about renewing the purpose and the promise of Scottish Labour.

That promise is that we build a better, more equal nation, and we leave it as a legacy for our children. That is a moral purpose. But too often it can become clouded in the day to day of our politics.

In this moment of renewal for our party. We must restate that purpose. But we also have to listen. We have to learn. And we have to change.

We need a Scottish Labour Party that speaks confidently about work, industry, economic growth and wealth creation. A party that is ambitious for our public services because it understands that prosperity and social justice go hand in hand. A party that believes every young person deserves the opportunity of a good job and a secure future.

Andy Burnham has offered a path forward for the UK Labour Party – leading with hope, showing that Labour politics and policies can make a difference to people’s lives, fighting for good growth in every postcode and redistributing power, wealth and opportunity across the UK.

The lesson of May is that the popularity or otherwise of the UK leader has an impact on Scottish Labour – but it is only part of the story. Scottish Labour must renew as well.

Harold Wilson famously said the party was a moral crusade or it is nothing. It is time to rediscover that sense of purpose.

Scottish Labour has always been strongest when it has been rooted in the lives of working people. That means working alongside trade unions, businesses, civic Scotland and local communities—not talking at them but listening and building solutions together. Economic growth and social justice must not be competing priorities, they are the twin track route to a fairer Scotland.

I believe we can rebuild trust in politics. I believe we can renew Scottish Labour. And I believe we can once again become the party of hope for Scotland. I am asking my fellow party members to put their trust in me to unite and renew our party.

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