I never again want to feel like I did at 10pm on the night of the General Election .
When the exit poll was announced it was devastating.
We had let down millions of people across the country who desperately need a Labour Government.
Time after time I have said we need to learn the lessons from election defeats - and I'm fed up saying it.
The Labour Party must change so that people across the country can trust us once again.
I’m standing to be deputy leader of the Labour Party because I want to help us win power to transform lives.
That’s why I joined the Labour party: to change our country.
Growing up on the Wester Hailes council estate in Edinburgh, in a family that worked as coopers and slaughtermen, I was taught to be three things: a patriotic Scot; a passionate Hearts football club fan; and a defender of the Labour movement.
It’s a combination that has brought unbridled joy and uncontrollable tears in equal measure over the years.
When my dad died suddenly at the age of 39 I was just nine-years-old. My mum was left with two young boys to look after, and I don’t think I ever appreciated how hard she worked to keep us afloat.
To the Tory Government of the day, families like ours didn’t deserve support. But my mum and my teachers told me and my brother there was nothing we couldn’t achieve.
I want that hope and aspiration for every child.
That’s what the Labour Party can deliver when it’s in power.
But today we are on the opposition benches in the Commons, in danger of drifting into irrelevance.
We need ambition, strength and courage if we are to stand a chance of survival.
I know what it takes to beat the odds.
I worked as a kitchen porter and went on to run my own pubs.
I grew up on a council estate and went to Edinburgh University at the age of 16 as the first in my family to go to university.
I helped rescue my beloved football club from extinction by leading the fans’ foundation.
And in politics I have defended my seat against a wave of populist nationalism that swept away all my Labour colleagues in Scotland… twice.
I know how to win by building broad coalitions of support from all parties and none.
To win again, we will need to beat the odds, and they are stacked against us.
But we can change them if we make the right choices and be honest with ourselves and the public.
The architects of the party’s catastrophic failure in 2019 cannot be allowed to be the architects of the response.
The next leadership team must turn us into an election-winning machine that uses the skills and talents of all our members and supporters to succeed.
There are four ways I want to see us do that.
Firstly, we must listen to and reconnect with voters in the seats we lost, as well as those who abandoned us in the seats we hold.
We must also listen to those in seats we will never win and build our response from there.
With Scotland’s voice at the top of the party we can send a strong message that we are listening to all the nations and regions that want to be heard, and that the entire party can learn from Scotland where populist nationalism had its first victory in the UK.
Second, we must be clear about where we stand on the key issues of the day.
Voters don’t want politicians to agree with them all the time – they want us to have the debate and try to convince them.
On the major constitutional issues of our time – Scottish independence and Brexit – we must be clear with people where we stand.
We should always be a pro-EU and pro-UK party because it is not just in the national interest, but part of our values. We must show leadership and strength to make and win those arguments.
Third, we must reform our organisation.
As deputy leader I would launch a review of our organisation – working alongside members and party staff – to understand the mistakes that were made and how we can fix them for the future.
The current party organisation should not be changed until the new leadership team is in place.
Finally, we need an open and inclusive policy process to lead us to Labour’s next manifesto.
I believe Labour can win again, but we will only turn this round if we don’t dwell on the past and instead look to the future.
Big questions need a Labour response - how do we govern ourselves if we are to have a post-Brexit Britain?
What does the future of work look like with automation, disruptive technologies, and artificial intelligence?
How do we cope with an ageing population?
What skills will our young people and changing workforce require?
How do we ensure the communities that provided the backbone of the country in the past and feel left behind, become the drivers of the future?
How do we address the climate crisis before it is too late?
These are the questions I want to explore in this debate.
Looking to the past will only prolong our years in the wilderness and put our country at risk.
We must become a credible alternative government of the future, not a protest movement of the past.
That’s how we lift millions of children, families, and pensioners out of poverty again.
This is just the start of this debate for me. As my hero, former Labour Leader John Smith, famously said, ‘all I ask is the opportunity to serve’.