Scottish Labour must rediscover its soul, says leadership hopeful Michael Marra

Scottish Labour must “rediscover our soul” and reconnect with the country, one of the party’s leadership contenders has said.

Michael Marra said the party must “clean up” its internal culture and “move beyond articulating what we are against and campaign on what we are for”.

The North East MSP, the first to make the leadership ballot, is vying to replace Anas Sarwar after he stood down as Scottish Labour leader last month.

He faces competition from new MSP Joe Fagan, while Monica Lennon hopes to be on the ballot but is yet to win enough support.

Ahead of the nominations period closing on Monday, Mr Marra said: “Across the UK in May, we lost to political insurgents railing against a Labour leadership that had lost contact with the country.

“But in Scotland we lost to a feckless, incompetent and corrupt SNP whose two-decade record has seen every Scottish institution weakened and the opportunities of our population recede.”

Joe Fagan is also running to become Scottish Labour leader (Jane Barlow/PA)

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He said Scottish Labour had let down communities that “desperately need to see change”.

He added: “We cannot spend the next five years doing more of what we did these last five, 10, 15 years, repeating the same mistakes, sniping and complaining.

“We need to clean up our internal culture and move beyond articulating what we are against, and campaign on what we are for.

Monica Lennon hopes to win enough support to get on the leadership ballot (Andrew Milligan/PA)

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“It used to be that the public knew where Labour’s hearts were and we had to win the argument that they could trust our heads.

“A big part of our challenge is now the opposite. We can make the sums add up but we must rediscover our soul and reconnect with Scotland.”

Mr Marra said the party had to “unite”, “renew”, and “rediscover” its moral purpose.