Two of the candidates for the leadership of Scottish Labour have set out their priorities if elected to the job.

MSPs Neil Findlay and Sarah Boyack and MP Jim Murphy are competing for the role vacated by Johann Lamont in the wake of the independence referendum.

All three have been outlining their case at hustings and meetings with party members across the country, with the new leader to be announced next Saturday.

Ms Boyack has today published a list of her priorities for the job with a focus on social justice. Mr Findlay said he will be ready to "hit the ground running" with a "progressive agenda" if elected leader.

Lothian MSP Ms Boyack said: "Social justice is something that we all talk about in politics. It's what I came into politics to try to achieve.

"It's almost 20 years since the late John Smith, leader of the UK Labour Party, led the Labour Party's Commission on Social Justice back in 1994.

"John Smith's anger at the state of the UK at the time led him to establish the commission to inform the Labour Party's policy-making and provide the basis for a national debate about the future of work and welfare.

"I will therefore set up a new project to mirror the work done by the Smith Commission in 1994.

This would look at social justice in the context of 21st Century, and the enormous changes that have taken place."

The MSP said she will also make childcare, capping rent increases, fuel poverty and reducing the life expectancy gap between rich and poor, priorities as leader.

Mr Findlay said he will make the NHS and tackling inequality his focus if he becomes leader.

"If elected on Saturday December 13 I'll be holding Nicola Sturgeon to account in the chamber at Holyrood the next week, about their failure on the NHS," Mr Findlay wrote in an article on the Labour Hame website.

"This is the sort of leadership we need to be showing - in the parliament and the country, and we need to be showing it now.

"Labour has a chance to offer hope to the many people who lost faith in Labour as being the vehicle to represent their interests and to be the party of progressive change for the many, not the few.

"We must show that we have a vision of redistributing wealth and power determination to build social housing to meet need and create employment, to tackle health and wealth inequality, to deal with the social care crisis, to make work more secure and to end youth unemployment.

In making these issues the political priorities I will help Labour make Scotland a better place for all of us. My focus will be on using the powers we have and from day one holding the SNP to account for not making better use of them."

He added: "That is why we need someone who can take the fight to them as soon as this contest is over. I will be ready for the first First Minister's Questions to take the battle straight to the nationalists.

"I will hit the ground running and I will be there each week until May 2015 and then on to May 2016 taking that fight straight to them."

In a speech in Glasgow yesterday, Mr Murphy, a former Scottish Secretary, set out his vision for ''devo max within Scotland'', arguing that many of the powers earmarked for transfer to Scotland by the Smith Commission should in turn be passed on to councils and other bodies.

He believes a process of decentralisation would help the Labour Party to win back trust in Scotland.

The East Renfrewshire MP said: ''City Deals for Scotland's other great cities should follow.

''Scotland needs economic plans that recognise the comparative advantages that our cities enjoy, from Aberdeen's energy and engineering expertise, Dundee's excellence in life sciences, to Edinburgh and Glasgow's academic and financial sector strength.

''Those who have these new powers devolved to them could co-operate where it makes sense if they face common challenges or for reasons of scale.

''With the right co-operation between business, public services, education and science, Glasgow-Edinburgh could be a powerful city-region to rival the economic might of the North East or London.

''Creating jobs, raising productivity and wages, investing in infrastructure and innovation.

''As the Edinburgh Government gains more power it can either hold on to it or pass it on so our cities and regions can flourish.''