Michael Marra: “My first priority in all of this is that people have a right to come to their work and do their job and to feel they can…”

Of course it is the aim, we are going to fight for every vote in every seat – but where we are at the moment we are a long way from that.

Councils have been underfunded and too often Labour councillors have been the last line of defence for local services in the teeth of cuts handed out from Holyrood.

We urgently need clarity from the SNP government about their reforms, and a commitment that it will mean more powers and more funding for local communities.

He is the most popular politician in Scotland by a distance, the most popular politician since Nicola Sturgeon, but we need to translate that into party support.