As voting opens in the Scottish Labour leadership contest, Anas Sarwar MSP sets out his pitch to revive the party.

Anas Sarwar MSP is a candidate for the leadership of Scottish Labour, and a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Glasgow region.

When we recover from the coronavirus pandemic our society will face enormous challenges – ending poverty; healing our health service; and tackling the climate emergency.

I know the Labour Party has the ideas and determination to take those challenges on. In 2024, the people of the UK will have the opportunity to elect Keir Starmer as Prime Minister so that we can get to work.

But the path to Downing Street runs through Scotland. We must be honest with ourselves. In Scotland, our party hasn’t been good enough.

When people deserved a strong Scottish Labour Party, we failed to provide them with it. I am standing for leader to change that. I want to rebuild party so that we can have the opportunity to rebuild our country.

No going back

We cannot go back to society as it was before the pandemic – hollowed out public services, an underfunded NHS and insecure work leaving millions of people unable to pay their bills.

After 13 years of the SNP in government in Scotland and over a decade of Tory rule at Westminster, almost a quarter of Scottish children are growing up in poverty. That is the devastating reality of SNP and Tory austerity.

In this contest, I have laid out my plans to end child poverty in Scotland by 2030. It won’t be easy, but with political will, we can eradicate child poverty from the country altogether.

We can start by doubling the new devolved Scottish Child Payment to £20 per week, which will lift tens of thousands of families out of poverty. Households with a disabled child or adult would also get an extra £5 per week under my plan, recognising the additional difficulties faced by those families.

These are the kind of progressive ideas my campaign has been putting forward. The task of building a fairer society is difficult but if we make it our collective national mission – I am certain we can achieve it.

To do that, we must put aside our differences and focus the next term of the Scottish Parliament on Covid recovery.

Obsession with indy

There are those on either side of the constitutional debate who want us to return to the politics of old. It suits the Tories, and the SNP, for our politics to be paralysed with debates about flags and borders.

The media, particularly across the UK, is obsessed with independence.

But it isn’t a priority for the people of Scotland. What matters is recovery – rebuilding our NHS, schools and public services.

There is far more that unites our people than that which divides them. Yet we can’t preach unity to the country if we are not united ourselves.

I want to bring my experience of uniting Scotland’s diverse communities to the Labour movement.

Doing things differently

Together, we can create a country where our public services and local councils have the resources they need, where our schools are restored to their rightful place as among the best in the world, where we create the jobs of the future and deliver a real plan for climate justice, and ensure our NHS never again has to choose between treating a virus or treating cancer. A country which offers opportunity and aspiration for all.

Labour can win again right across the UK if we offer a positive alternative – a plan to heal our wounds, to reunite our people, and to rebuild our country.

Covid has changed the world and it has changed Britain. We need our politics to change too. I know that if we work together, we can deliver that change and rebuild our country.

Editor: The other candidate, Monica Lennon MSP, has also been offered space to put forward her leadership pitch.

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