LABOUR leadership contender Sarah Boyack launched her bid to unify her party at a low-key event attended by a handful of parliamentary colleagues and some local party members.
She set out her pitch to be the nicest, most decent candidate, in a bruising contest against Westminster big-hitter Jim Murphy and her left-wing Holyrood colleague Neil Findlay yesterday.
Mr Findlay will announce today at his campaign launch that ending poverty will be his top priority if elected.
Ms Boyack was given support by Holyrood colleague Malcolm Chisholm, who spoke of her wealth of experience as a member of Donald Dewar's first Cabinet and a Shadow Cabinet member of the last seven years who embodied Holyrood's consensual approach.
She is also competing against fellow MSP Neil Findlay to replace Johann Lamont, who resigned the Scottish Labour leadership accusing Westminster colleagues of treating the party in Scotland like a branch office.
She dubbed herself the "listening leader", outlining plans to publish 100 new policy ideas gleaned during her leadership tour.
Ms Boyack told the audience that if elected leader and then first minister, she wanted to see a properly funded health service, affordable childcare and quality schools, the mending of local government funding and "double devolution", with new powers and resources passed from central government to councils.
On local government finance, she said: "Vital services cannot possibly be adequately provided at the quality needed if cash available to councils keeps going down in real terms."
But she refused to specify her planned changes to council finance, insisting she would lay out these plans later.
Meanwhile, speaking in his home town of Fauldhouse, West Lothian, Mr Findlay will call for a return to "timeless" Labour values of "community, solidarity, fairness and justice".
He will say: "Where I've had the chance, I've made a difference - and I know that Labour, the party of the NHS, the party of devolution and the party of fairness at work has made a difference for Scotland and can do so again.
"We have to use the powers we have and the powers we will get to make a difference in every community to transform Scotland and improve the lives of all our people.
"To achieve that we must put tackling poverty, tackling health and wealth inequality at the heart of all we do.
"It is shameful that families in our country cannot afford to feed their children."
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