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ON Friday, I was in Glasgow at the latest of a series of packed meetings and rallies across Scotland.

I’d been in Edinburgh earlier and in Dundee and Aberdeen the day before.

Being in Scotland on Friday was no accident. It was the day the first ballot papers in the UK Labour leadership election were sent out.

I wanted it to be here that I set out my 10-point plan for our recovery as a party and a country – a plan steeped in Labour values but with a clear, bold and radical vision for the future of our party.

A vision of hope.

I know Labour can not have a path back to power that fails to speak to Scotland and Labour can not win in Scotland without major change.

So if elected, I will deliver real, lasting change for people across Scotland and throughout the UK.

We need the politics of growth – not the austerity that cripples and divides our poorest communities.

Poverty affects people across the UK so under my leadership, we will set up a national investment bank to create jobs while reducing the deficit fairly.

(Image: PA)

There will also be fair taxes for all – let those with the broadest shoulders bear the greatest burden to help balance the books.

We will lower the welfare bill through investment and growth, not attacking the least well-off by cutting child tax credits.

We need urgent action on climate change, putting the future of the planet ahead of the short-term interests of corporate shareholders.

The railways, which should be run for public good not private profit, will return to public ownership and in the energy sector we will address the exploitation by the Big Six.

Privatisation puts profit before people. That’s one reason we need to hang on to CalMac, who provide essential services to our island communities. We also need to address the housing crisis that blights our major towns and cities.

We will provide council and social rented homes through a mass house-building programme and introduce rent controls in the private rented sector to prevent the rip-off of tenants and the housing benefit system.

The issue of Trident is one with particular resonance in Scotland. It’s an often-overlooked tragedy that so many of our most skilled workers have little alternative to building and servicing weaponry rather than something socially and economically productive.

(Image: PA Wire)

As Labour leader, I will scrap the replacement of Trident and create jobs in defence diversification.

We need constitutional change too – delivering a lasting settlement for Scotland and Wales and devolution to the regions of England.

The House of Lords is simply an insult to democracy and needs replaced with an elected second chamber.

These are issues I discussed with John Smith when he was Labour leader and they are more relevant today than ever before.

This policy programme is designed to speak to all parts of the UK – not set one against another as the Tories have done and as the SNP have exploited.

I have always supported devolution but it’s not devolving powers that’s progressive – it’s using them to change people’s lives. That’s why I look forward to working with Scottish Labour’s new leadership team.

It’s by showing that we can deliver an economy that provides the jobs, houses and security people need that we’ll come back in Scotland and elsewhere.

We have to provide a sense of hope and a sense of a better future for people across the UK.

That’s the programme that I will deliver as Labour leader.