Fellow Co-operators,

I am standing to be deputy leader of Scottish Labour and writing formally to ask for your nomination. As a proud Co-operative Party member, I would be honoured if you would support me.

Next year we face a Scottish Parliament election that will shape our country for generations to come. We can do better than this. But to win again, we must unite, bring together the talents from across our movement and empower the people who want to improve our lives.

The strength of our movement has always stemmed from our foundation of shared values that seeks to put democratic, public ownership at the heart of our communities and economy. But to truly take on the SNP and the Tories, we will need to do that from power, not opposition.

I know the difference it makes when our party wins: the smoking ban, free personal care and free bus passes changed people’s lives for the better. And in power we put co-operative policies at the heart of our agenda securing Land reform and establishing Co-operative Development Scotland to promote the development of co-operatives.

My commitment to putting mutual values into practice, has spanned my time in the Scottish Parliament.

As a Social Justice Minister in the Scottish Labour government, when the parliament was in its infancy, the first legislation I guided through our Scottish Parliament exempted co-operative housing from the Right to Buy. In the same role I delivered the very first credit union development plan, backed by new resources, to expand the movement.

And just weeks into the new decade, I have used time in Parliament to make sure Scotland’s new National Investment Bank was able to invest in co-operatives, social enterprises and third sector organisations, recognising their vital role in regenerating our communities. A publicly-owned institution that will have the power to invest, from the get-go, it must also allow us to share the wealth we create together. Likewise, I am pushing for consumers themselves to have a democratic say at every level of the new Consumer Scotland body, without which its true power will never be realised.

But there is more to do if we want to empower people to improve their lives. Municipal bus companies may soon be a reality, but that hard-won change has taken too long to secure. Hopes for community broadband have been dashed. Co-operative Development Scotland has lost its original driving mission and needs funding and a statutory underpinning. And across the country workers’ say in their firms is diminishing, with change and job losses forced upon them by big business.

I am proud to have held my seat in every election since devolution, because politics is local as well as national. Having won five elections in Dumbarton through good, local campaigning, as Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party I would secure more organisational resources for Scotland to organise, win and return more Co-operative MSPs in 2021, preparing the ground for the 2022 Council elections.

Our joint successes, as the Co-operative and Scottish Labour parties, has always shown that we are greater than the sum of our parts; only by organising and uniting our movement, can we win again.