Joe Fagan

I am standing to unite our party, to back our movement, to seize this moment and rebuild Scottish Labour as a party for working people of Scotland.

Scotland should be leading the energy transition, but that will happen only if we keep skilled workers in employment, support them into the jobs of the future and ensure that the wealth created here benefits communities here.

The question is whether we support Scottish jobs and Scottish industry, or import more of the energy we need while allowing our skills and supply chains to disappear.

Oil and gas will continue to form part of Scotland's energy mix for years to come.

I will not stop lobbying the UK Government until Jackdaw and Rosebank are approved, and the jobs linked to these projects are protected.

I know my campaign is bold, but continuity won’t cut it. It’s time to reach out beyond the Holyrood bubble and shake up Scottish politics.

If reform is needed, it should start with backing the workforce, funding councils fairly and stopping public money being drained into excessive profits in social care.

Scottish Labour should be absolutely clear that we will resist the SNP’s austerity.

Unison is right. You cannot rebuild public services by cutting the jobs of the people who deliver them.

Power should sit as close as possible to the people it affects. That means a stronger Scotland in a changing UK.

Let me be plain about myself. I am in this for Scotland and nowhere else. I am not building the kind of career that ends in ermine. You will never see my name on a list for the House of Lords. I want to serve the country I am from.

This leadership contest cannot become another conversation inside the Holyrood bubble, about the Holyrood bubble, for the benefit of the Holyrood bubble.

It’s time to reach out beyond the Holyrood bubble and shake up Scottish politics.

I want to build local wealth and local power and renew Labour as a force for change within the Scottish Parliament and without.

I want us to back the workers and the wealth builders who hold the key to our future shared prosperity.

I am not here to wait around. As my track record shows, I am here to get things done.

Continuity won’t cut it

The lesson is simple: people will listen to Scottish Labour again when we stop sounding like a party talking to itself and start proving that we are on their side.

Andy Burnham’s by-election victory in Makerfield and our own successes in South Lanarkshire show that Labour can win back trust when we are rooted in communities and serious about changing people’s lives.

Scottish Labour needs to learn lessons from where we have won, not just where we have lost.