LEFTWINGER Neil Findlay pledged to put social justice as the heart of his campaign yesterday as he launched his bid to become Scottish Labour leader.

The politician, who is currently his party’s health spokesman, announced his candidacy at lunchtime at the Scottish Parliament.

He will take on fellow Lothian MSP Sarah Boyack, who threw her hat into the ring on Tuesday.

And Blairite MP Jim Murphy, Labour’s Westminster shadow international development secretary, announced his candidacy on Wednesday night. He took a leading role in the cross-party Better Together campaign, which critics said alienated Labour’s core supporters through aligning with Tories and Lib Dems.

In an exclusive interview with the Morning Star, Mr Findlay called for the “widest possible range of candidates” to put themselves forward to ensure a “healthy democratic engagement with the process.”

MSP Elaine Smith hinted that Mr Murphy would be the wrong choice, telling newspapers: “If we get a London-based careerist as Scottish leader we will be finished.”

But Mr Findlay said: “The rules say any MSP, MP or MEP can stand and I don’t have a problem with anyone from those parliaments standing,” he said.

And he commended former leader Johann Lamont, whose record has been under attack since she resigned last week and slammed party bosses for treating Scottish Labour like a “branch office.”

He said: “I’d like to pay tribute to Johann for over a decade of service to the Labour party.”

Mr Findlay wrote in the Morning Star last week that Labour must “outflank the SNP from the left” with policies including full employment and building council houses. Asked if he felt this would mean a break with the past, he said: “I was presenting mainstream Labour ideas — ideas that make a difference to people’s lives.

“During the referendum campaign all of these things were discussed and it’s incumbent on Labour to address them.”

He said fairness would be the key theme of his platform. “The Scottish people are demanding that politicians address the theme of social justice and that should be the territory the Labour Party stands on anyway.”

The new leader will face an uphill struggle to save a party organisation in decline. Scottish Labour’s membership now stands at just 13,000. And they will face the immediate challenge of holding onto Labour’s 41 Scottish seats at next year’s general election.

One Labour leftwinger welcomed Mr Findlay’s entry into the race, but admitted Gordon Brown would stand a better chance of both beating Mr Murphy and consolidating support. Sources close to Mr Brown have ruled him out.

It is likely Mr Findlay will attract significant union endorsements — though Unison and GMB officers were said to be undecided.

The election will take place via an electoral college of parliamentarians, party members and trade unionists.

conradlandin@peoples-press.com