The historic union between the nations of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is at risk once again.

Little over two years since Scots voted decisively to reject Scottish independence, the Tories’ reckless Brexit gamble has threatened to end an Act of Union that has survived more than three centuries.

It is Labour – the party that believes in working together – that can save the UK for generations to come.

Power and wealth hoarded in one corner of our United Kingdom has not worked for the vast majority of people

Today, I am proposing a reform which would have far-reaching consequences not just for Scotland, but for the entire United Kingdom: we need a new Act of Union for this century.

And we need a federal solution for the nations and regions of our country: a radical reshaping where every component part of the United Kingdom – Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English regions – takes more responsibility for what happens in their own communities, but where we still maintain the protection of being part of a greater whole as the UK.

In the post-Brexit referendum era we live in a society more dangerously divided than at any point in our recent history. It is a society where every election or referendum we have brings about another mini-revolution. The public reject the status quo but there is no settled will about the direction we should take. And instead of grappling with the complex messages that people are sending us, and trying to find the solutions in the shades of grey, politicians of all parties are attached to solutions that are black or white, and dividing us further.

Anyone in Labour, or any party, who claims that we can sit on the margins and wait for politics to “settle down” will rightly be consigned to history. The future shape of the UK, how we govern ourselves and how our economy and society should develop is now the single biggest political question we face.

For the SNP, the answer to any question is always independence. But we must never forget why Labour fought to save our United Kingdom.

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I am proud – immensely proud – to have fought to keep the UK together in 2014. I was proud because it was a Labour argument I was making. The UK provides the redistribution of wealth that defines our entire Labour movement, and it provides the protection for public finance in Scotland that comes from being part of something larger. But there is no escaping that the battle of two years ago has unleashed polarised constitutional politics which have changed Scotland forever.

The Tories want Scotland in the UK and out of Europe, and the SNP wants Scotland in the EU, but out of the UK. Continuing to pull our country in each of these directions risks breaking the union once and for all. What is needed is a solution that meets the demands of the Scottish people.

For me, this starts with reaffirming our belief in the UK for the 21st century. Over time, political power has become concentrated in too few hands. Power and wealth hoarded in one corner of our United Kingdom has not worked for the vast majority of people.

That is why the time has come for the rest of the UK to follow where Scotland led in the 1980s and 1990s and establish a people’s constitutional convention to re-establish the UK for a new age.

The convention should bring together groups to deliberate on the future of our country and propose a way forward that strengthens the UK and establishes a new political settlement for the whole of our country.