After years of Tory and SNP misrule, Scotland needs Labour's plan for the biggest-ever transfer of power to the people – Ian Murray

The SNP is famed for its iron discipline. Dissent is not tolerated: just look at how Edinburgh MP Joanna Cherry has been treated. Nothing must rock the boat.

Labour leader Keir Starmer doesn’t just want to change who governs the UK but how it is governed (Picture: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

In fact, before jumping ship to Alex Salmond’s Alba Party, Kenny MacAskill MP even revealed how the nationalists put off difficult decisions to avoid any “lurid headlines” that might impact on support for independence.

However, it comes as no surprise that the corridors of Westminster have been gripped by rare in-fighting within the SNP group. Ian Blackford was the victim of a coup, with Stephen Flynn emerging victorious in the race to succeed him. I wish him well in the weekly bouts with Rishi Sunak.

But the simple reality is that the SNP is turning inwards, just as its negative vision for Scotland’s future is inward-looking. Nicola Sturgeon is starting to lose her grip.

Her hand-picked Westminster leader ousted, her choice to succeed him defeated, her party pushed into second place by Labour in last week’s West Lothian by-election, and her dream of another divisive referendum looking forlorn. Trying to paint the next general election as a so-called “de facto referendum” is so out of touch when people are worried about their jobs, energy bills and supermarket costs.

No-one should have to make decisions about heating or eating. No parent should have to go without food to provide for their children. That’s the debate we should be having now and until the next election, not more of the same paralysing and divisive independence debate.

Most of the SNP’s MPs at Westminster know this strategy is a folly. They look at Labour’s resurgence and fear for their jobs. Change is coming, but it’s not the change the nationalists want.

After 12 years of disastrous, morally bankrupt Tory government across the UK and 15 years of SNP misrule in Scotland, people are hungry for change. We have had three Prime Ministers and four Chancellors in a year, and still there has been no meaningful help for those struggling to get by.

People feel disconnected and left behind, but not only in Scotland; they feel the same in towns and cities across England and Wales. They don’t want more conflict; they want co-operation. The cost-of-living crisis is far and away the most important issue facing any government.

But we also know that Westminster needs to reform, and we know that Holyrood needs it too. The plans announced by Gordon Brown this week will radically renew, rewire and reform our country and economy, bringing power closer to people.

A re-balanced political representation, a replacement for the House of Lords, a new economy, and a strengthened Scotland: the biggest-ever transfer of power to the people of Britain will be at the heart of the next UK Labour government.

At the next election, the choice is clear. It won’t be a “de facto referendum”, it will be a straight choice between a Labour or a Tory government.

There is an alternative to the broken status quo which offers a better future for Scotland in the UK, with Keir Starmer as a PM who doesn’t just want to change who governs the UK but how it is governed. Scotland needs change, Scotland wants change, and that change is coming under Labour.

Ian Murray is Labour MP for Edinburgh South