AT THE start of this week, Anas Sarwar delivered his first major speech as leader of Scottish Labour.

He used it to say that a ‘national recovery plan’ for Scotland would be the centrepiece of the party’s election campaign, a plan that would form the party’s manifesto for the election. He also announced it would consist of five themes: a jobs recovery; an NHS recovery; an education recovery; a climate recovery; and a communities recovery.

On the day many pupils returned to school, Anas outlined some of the proposals for an education recovery, including a ‘personal comeback plan’ for every pupil on a needs-based assessment, and a tutoring programme for all ages and all pupils.

Scottish Labour will also call for a resit guarantee of a free place at college to take national qualifications should this be the chosen path of any pupil from the cohort affected by Covid.

A ‘summer comeback’ programme will ensure children can enjoy themselves, with resources for national youth, arts and outdoors organisations, school trips to outdoor activity centres, and free access to sport, transport, outdoor activities and culture.

I warmly welcome this approach and the focus it puts on the needs of children who have missed out on so much over the last year. It is part of a package of solutions to help ensure Scotland comes back a better, stronger, fairer nation than the one that first went into lockdown last year.

The other message running through the speech was the urgent need for unity. Anas wants to unite our country and focus on delivering a Covid recovery parliament so we can rebuild our country with a national recovery plan.

I believe this is a message that will resonate with the majority of people here in East Lothian and across Scotland in the weeks ahead.