New shadow cabinet role for MSP Ken Macintosh

The portfolio includes: democratic renewal, elections, community empowerment, pensioners rights and welfar, planning, local government, planning, and building standards..

Ken said: “I joined the Labour Party because I wanted to tackle the unfairness we see all around us.

Speaking of his East Renfrewshire colleague Jim Murphy being elected Scottish Labour leader at the weekend, Ken added: “Jim has made it clear from the outset that he is restoring that sense of Labour’s central mission and I have a crucial role in delivering on that aim.

“My remit covers the whole of Scotland but there are obvious issues locally which that will include.

“I am immediately conscious, for example, of the problems facing people in East Renfrewshire and across the country who can’t find or can’t afford a house and who are having to rent privately with all the costs and in
security that can sometimes bring.

“Or that fact that our local authorities are being forced to cut budgets for schools, 
libraries and care homes, at the very time we want to give young people the best 
start in life and drive up standards for the way we look after older people in the community.”

He added that there are lessons Scotland can learn from East Renfrewshire such as the way its mutli-cultural community lives in tolerance and respect at a time of reaction and extremism.”