‘Scottish Labour needs a radical reset rooted in democratic socialism’

On election day, while millions of Scots were casting their votes, I was in hospital undergoing surgery after months of anxiety over a cancer scare. Watching the results unfold from home a day later, I felt heartbroken – not for myself, but for the activists who had given everything, and for the working-class communities who desperately needed a Scottish Labour government.

Before I left hospital, NHS staff told me: “We need you back in Parliament to be our champion.” Those words have stayed with me.

The election result has given Scottish Labour a moment of reckoning – and a chance to choose a different path.

I am standing because I believe Scottish Labour needs a radical reset rooted in democratic socialism. Scotland cannot wait.

Everyone in Scottish Labour wanted to win. Nobody lacked commitment or determination. But commitment alone is not enough.

Too often we asked people to trust our competence when what they were crying out for was conviction.

Scotland doesn’t need a more cautious Scottish Labour Party. It needs a Scottish Labour Party with the conviction to make the case for democratic socialism once again.

Nearly two decades after losing office, an entire generation has grown up without experiencing a Scottish Labour government.

Meanwhile, families face rising living costs, a housing emergency, struggling public services and an NHS under relentless pressure.

They are not asking politicians for endless constitutional arguments. They are asking who is prepared to fight alongside them.

Winning again will require a radical reset rooted in democratic socialism.

Democratic socialism isn’t an obstacle to winning again. It’s our route back to winning again.

That means having the confidence to tackle inequality, strengthen public ownership where it delivers better outcomes, empower trade unions, and use the power of government to improve people’s lives. These are not relics of Labour’s past. They are the answers to Scotland’s future.

But we also need to rebuild trust.

I believe leadership is about building bridges, not drawing battle lines.

Winning again means rebuilding trust between our party and trade unions, between Holyrood and our communities, and between Labour and the working-class voters who have stopped believing politics can improve their lives. And it means a new relationship between Scottish and UK Labour, finishing the job of party autonomy. Keir Starmer lost Scottish Labour the election but now that he’s gone, we still need to fix the other shortcomings in our campaign.

We are deep into Scottish Labour’s biggest crisis. We can’t be led by people who presided over our failures or didn’t stand up to a UK leadership that was out of control.

More of the same could drive us to 4th or 5th place in 2031.

For the past five years I have chaired the Scottish Labour Trade Union Group, helping strengthen the relationship between our party and affiliated unions. Working alongside the STUC Women’s Committee, we built support for universal free school meals because no child should be too hungry to learn.

Those experiences have reinforced my belief that Labour succeeds when we work alongside trade unions, campaigners and the communities we were created to represent.

I know opposition can deliver because I have done it.

When I introduced legislation to make period products freely available across Scotland, many dismissed it as unrealistic. Some even mocked it. I kept going because dignity mattered more than cynicism. Today, Scotland is the first country in the world to guarantee universal free access to period products.

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During the pandemic, I worked with trade unions to secure full sick pay for social care workers after an initial proposal had been rejected. Persistence, partnership and principled politics made the difference.

Whether campaigning to tackle alcohol deaths, pushing suicide prevention higher up the political agenda or advancing proposals to recognise ecocide in Scots law, I have always believed politicians should fight for people who need a champion – even when the cause is difficult or unfashionable.

That is the leadership Scottish Labour now needs.

I will always stand with workers seeking fair pay and decent conditions. I will always defend women’s rights and LGBTQ rights. And I will always challenge those who seek to divide our communities by scapegoating migrants and minorities instead of confronting poverty and inequality.

My vision for Scotland is rooted in democratic socialism: treating housing as a human right through a new generation of council housebuilding; creating a publicly owned National Care Service that values both those who give care and those who receive it; expanding community wealth building; and ensuring the transition to green energy and our reindustrialisation creates secure, unionised jobs.

These are practical solutions that improve people’s lives.

Politics cannot only happen during election campaigns. Scottish Labour must once again become a movement that organises year-round alongside trade unions, tenants’ organisations, community groups and local campaigners – listening as much as we speak.

That is how trust is rebuilt.

Scotland deserves a Labour Party that is bold enough to lead, humble enough to listen and confident enough to stand unapologetically on the side of working people.

That is the party I want to build: a Scottish Labour Party rooted in democratic socialism, connected to trade unions and communities, and judged not by the promises we make, but by the lives we change.