Next week when Scots go to the polling station they face a big choice.

They can vote for a Labour government that will take our whole country on the road to a fairer economy; a Labour government that will bring to an end those exploitative zero-hours contracts that cause so much damage to families trying to manage the household budget and pay the bills on time.

Or Scots can choose the road to another referendum with the SNP, something that divided the country like no other vote in history when it took place last year.

Unlike the Tories, who are obsessed with a vote on Europe, and the SNP who see the General Election as a stepping stone to another independence referendum, Labour has different priorities.

When the NHS in Scotland hasn't met A&E targets for nearly 300 weeks and when so many working class kids are being left behind by the SNP Government in Edinburgh, it would be absurd to spend another two years debating the constitution.

In a competition between tackling inequality and another referendum, ending inequality should win every single time.

The constitution is important, but our main focus will be on making Britain work for working people. So that means an end to the Tory austerity that has meant families are, on average, £1,600 worse off than when David Cameron and George Osborne first took office.

Under Labour, Scotland will see an extra £800 million investment through policies such as a mansion tax to invest in the NHS and a bank bonus tax to put young Scots back into work.

Look at the plans of the other parties. The Tories want to cut public spending faster in the next three years than they have already done in the past five. According to the experts at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the SNP would impose austerity longer than any other party.

Having opposed most things Labour did in office, the SNP want people to think they have had some sort of Damascene conversion to the cause of progressive politics. But their claims of support for Labour policies such as a mansion tax, a bank bonus tax and a 50p top rate of tax across the UK should be taken with a big pinch of salt.

The very manifesto that stated support for these Labour policies also committed the SNP to ending UK-wide taxes in Scotland. That would mean scrapping the Barnett formula and imposing £7.6 billion worth of extra cuts immediately for Scotland. That would be a disaster.

Labour faces a big battle to win support in Scotland, but we will fight for every single vote right up to polling day next week.

Labour has a plan to make life better for working class families right across the UK. We want to get people back into work, but don't believe that, once people are in employment, support should end.

Families going out to work deserve to have some security. That's why we will abolish those exploitative zero hours contracts. And we will make sure that a fair day's work is rewarded with a fair day's pay, which means a minimum wage of at least £8 and promoting a living wage through our Make Work Pay contracts.

If you want a Labour Government then you need to vote for one. It can't be left to someone else. Voting for another party in Scotland in the hope that other people elsewhere in the UK will deliver a Labour government is too big a gamble.

The only way Ed Miliband will become Prime Minister, and the only way I can deliver a Labour Budget as Chancellor, is if people vote for Labour. It's as simple as that.

A vote for anyone other than Labour risks the Tories being the largest party across the UK and David Cameron returning to Downing Street. That would mean another five years of failed austerity from the Tories, something Scotland and the UK as a whole can't afford.