Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray committed Labour to a Scottish Living Wage as a hallmark of its values in his address to the party conference in Manchester today.

Iain Gray, MSP, said: “If I am elected First Minister of Scotland next year when the time comes to take hard decisions I will not shirk them.

“But I will take those decisions for the good of the many with Labour values as the touchstone and the guiding principle.

“We will need to see pay restraint in the months and years ahead. In particular, I want to see excessive salaries and bonuses at the very top end of the Scottish public sector scaled back.

“But those at the bottom of the pay scales must be protected. That is why I will introduce a Scottish Living wage, of over £7 per hour.

“In a 21st century Scotland no one who does a fair days work should receive less than a fair days pay. In a Labour Scotland we will make sure that no one does.

“Labour colleagues in Glasgow City Council have shown that a Living Wage works, so beginning in the public sector but building out from there, through partnership, and procurement we will create a movement, a campaign against poverty pay.”

He added Labour in Scotland may have to deal with the choices presented by the Tory cuts, but “it is the most vulnerable who will deal with the consequences.”

“I say to every Scot: Labour will be by your side when no one else will dare to care. That is our mission. That will be the hallmark of my leadership in Scotland.”

Alex Salmond’s “legacy of failure” was both “a challenge and an obligation” but Labour was once again ready to be the biggest party in the Scottish Parliament.

Read the speech in full here >>>>>

27 September 2010