Michael Marra elected as Scottish Labour leader

Michael Marra's speech following his election as Scottish Labour leader

Thank you all.

To be entrusted with the leadership of our Scottish Labour Party is a singular honour and a great responsibility.

I am grateful for your trust and take on the duty of advancing our cause of a fairer, more equal Scotland with all that I can possibly give.

Thank you to everyone who has taken part in this leadership election.

I want to begin by thanking our Labour party staff who have organised hustings and events across the country, this event today, and the election process itself.

I'd love to be able to tell them after a Scottish election, two parliamentary by-elections, multiple council by-elections and a leadership election you can put your feet up but I have bad news it's conference next week!

No one works harder than Labour party staff folks. It's just a fact.

Can I also recognise the service of my friend and predecessor Anas Sarwar. He took over a party that was out on its feet, strapped on his boots and took us to a place where we led the charge in kicking the Tories out of Downing Street. Thank you, Anas.

And thank you too, Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour's longest serving, hardest working MSP and a brilliant Deputy Leader who has also kept the show on the road this summer.

And thank you to Douglas Alexander as Scottish Secretary and the rest of our brilliant Scottish Labour team at Westminster who have been serving Scotland at the heart of Andy Burnham's government.

And finally, thank you to Joe and to Monica, for the arguments you have made, and for the good-natured spirit in which you have conducted this contest.

Both Joe and Monica made the case for what Labour should do next. And both were right.

Joe argued for a politics rooted in people and place, for less control in the centre and more control for local communities. That should be the case in our country and in our party. 

Monica was right to say we need to reconnect with the trade union movement that birthed the Labour party. Her record delivering change through parliament is also a template for how Labour should behave in opposition robust in our criticism of the SNP yes, but also making our own change.  

So please join me in thanking them.

To everyone who voted, however you voted, thank you.

It is the honour of my life to be elected leader of the Scottish Labour Party.

I know what a responsibility it is.

And I want to say something today to every member of our party.

Whatever tradition of the party you come from, whatever candidate you supported in this contest, whatever your role in our movement, there is a place for you in the Labour family.

Because leadership is not about one person.

It is about all of us.

Every party member. Every councillor. Every MSP and every MP has a role to play in rebuilding our party to reconnect with the country.

And every one of them will have the opportunity to shape our future.

Before I talk about where we go from here, I want to talk about where I came from.

I grew up in Dundee, born into a family of trade unionists.

My grandmother, Margaret, was one of seven children who slept in a single bedroom in Lochee.

Of those seven children, she was the one chosen to go to college.

The other six siblings would stay working in the heat and stench of the jute mills, at least six days a week, and when that week was done they would take down an old flour tin and put in a share of their hard-earned wages to pay the cost of Margaret's keep and her education. I am forever grateful for that.

Because their sacrifice and that opportunity changed her life.

And her education changed mine.

The path she laid took me to Glasgow University, to the London School of Economics, to working on anti-poverty programmes at home and abroad with Oxfam, to working in higher education, to establishing a charity fighting child poverty, to serving my home city of Dundee as a councillor.

A career of service because of the values my beloved mum and dad taught me:

Dream big.

Work hard.

Play by the rules.

And never pass by on the other side when someone needs your help.

Those are Scottish values.

And they are Labour values.

But for too long, our party and our country have felt disconnected.

May hurt so much because we know the SNP didn't deserve a fifth term in power.

But the truth is Scotland didn't think we would be much better.

Scots know what we are against. They can't tell you what we are for.

And that vacuum was filled by the poison, racism and bigotry of Reform.

We must be clear in our values. We must lead with our values.

Social justice. The eradication of poverty in our society. Good work, good housing, good public services. The good life for working people, not struggling for a holiday once a year or a pint once a week.

An economy where everyone has a fair chance in life, which redistributes power, wealth and opportunity.

That's what Labour is for.

But our politics has to start and finish with people. Rather than reaching straight for the political attack line, we should be convening all those who have been failed, building movements and alliances, and delivering change.

That's what Andy Burnham's success in Manchester was all about. It was starting with the people and the policy, not the politics.

I want Scottish Labour to become a genuinely national party: rooted in every part of Scotland, open to everyone and capable of bringing communities together

My job as Leader is to reconnect Labour's values to where Scotland is today. Over the next year I have three priorities:

One: open up the party and reconnect it with Scotland.

Two, recover Labour's purpose and build a programme for the future.

And three, deliver change now.

In my first 100 days, I will take Scottish Labour out of the bubble of parliament and back into the country. We will work with people in their communities to understand what matters most, what is changing in their lives and what they want for the future.

We will bring our values to the table, but we will be led by people's priorities. Where our approach is not working, we will change what we are doing. Together, we will build practical answers in the places where people live.

That is politis with the doors open.

And by working in this way, we will reconnect ourselves with Labour's purpose.: a fairer country, good jobs, strong public services, power closer to people and opportunity for every young personfrom nursery and school to college, apprenticeships and university.

A new Scotland.

A stronger Scotland that we can all be proud of.

Because for a decade now Scotland has gotten weaker.

We can all feel it.

Our NHS. Our education system. Our economy.

Our parliament itself.

Scotland has to be strong for the challenges ahead. Climate change, technological change, demographic change.

We must reconnect with the country if we are ever to form a government in Holyrood to face these historic challenges.

That journey and that process will take time. But we cannot wait until 2031 to seize the chance to deliver change.

Because before then Scotland faces other issues

Potentially £5 billion worth of SNP cuts by 2030.

A legal target for child poverty set to be missed by a mile.

Public services creaking with demand.

A crisis of youth unemployment.

And good industrial jobs sent abroad as good Scottish workers are sent to the dole queue.

Which is why the third priority for my leadership is to start taking action now, not wait for the 2031 election for the chance to deliver change in Holyrood.

We will put education at the heart of Scottish politics, with the ambition to make our system world leading again. Not steady. Not stable. Not above average. The best in the world.

We will lead the debate on meeting the promise we made to Scotland's children and then wrote into law on child poverty levels.

We will argue for action on the drugs and alcohol crisis funded by the windfall large supermarkets have seen.

We will press for economic and industrial policies that put Scottish workers first

And we will push power and control out of Holyrood and into Scotland's regions.

Because politics in Scotland is more than just what happens in the Holyrood chamber.

We will work with Labour councillors across the country to protect services and communities from cuts.

We will work with our trade union movement to protect jobs, rights and deliver new opportunities.

And we will work with Andy Burnham's UK Labour government, with Scots at the heart of it, to deliver the best deal for Scotland in a changing UK.

I'm up for that challenge. And I know the people in this room are too.

Because the Labour party is and always has been the best vehicle for social justice in this country.

It is the honour of my life to be elected leader of Scottish Labour.

But we all have a stake in what comes next.

If generations of a family can be changed by the love and sacrifice of brothers and sisters in one small room in Dundee, the determination in this room can change our party, change our country and change the lives of millions of families in Scotland.

Let's get to work.

Thank you.