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I entered Scottish politics in the autumn of 2020 as the Scottish Progressives MSP for Clackmannanshire and Dunblane and stood as the Progressive candidate for Fife and the Forth Valley in December’s Scottish Parliament election that year. I remember that during that election the Scottish Progressives were able to make significant inroads with voters on a platform of pragmatic progressive unionist politics despite having been founded less than a year ago while voters gave Scottish Labour the opposite treatment, with the party falling from 42 seats to only 17 seats. Over the year which followed, Scottish Labour continued to lose support and eventually ended up merging with the SNP.
However, as part of the merger agreement between the Labour Party and the Progressive Workers’ Party, Scottish Labour has been resurrected, with Scottish Progressives MSPs now sitting as members of Scottish Labour.
I voted in favour of this merger because I believe that Scotland needs a strong centre-left voice in parliament, especially as the Liberal Coalition is set to embark on a ruthless and damaging programme of budget cuts and austerity. The Scottish Progressives and Labour had many shared left-wing ideals on economic issues, on transport, education, healthcare and more - I believe that by working together as one party rather than 2 parties both competing for votes, we can more effectively make the argument for left-of-centre, pragmatic and progressive politics.
Before the merger was even put to a vote of the members of the PWP and of Labour, I predicted that should it succeed, u/Tommy2Boys would question my unionist credentials - I was correct. Regardless of whatever the former leader of New Britain! might say, my views on the union have not changed - I still believe that Scotland is better off in the Union and that Scottish independence would be a hugely damaging prospect for Scotland and the Scottish economy. During merger negotiations it was decided that Scottish Labour will be a unionist party and as the new leader of Scottish Labour I have no intention to change that.
However, I and the Scottish Labour Party believe that unionism doesn’t mean a belief in centralising power in Westminster and opposing the devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament. In fact, I’d argue that the centralisation of power at Westminster is damaging to the fabric of the union as different parts of the union have differing needs and devolved legislatures are better placed to respond to some needs than Westminster is. Instead I believe in a more federal system where power is devolved to the legislative body which is best placed to legislate on that topic.
The merger between the Scottish Progressives and Labour has helped revitalise centre-left unionist politics within Scotland and as the new leader of the resurrected Scottish Labour Party, I plan to rebuild the party and regain the support of voters as we hold the Liberal Coalition to account and prove to voters that Scottish Labour is ready to take the reins of government again.
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