Findlay: Left-winger with a healthy appetite for change

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WIDELY seen as the candidate of the left, Neil Findlay has caught the eye as an effective performer at Holyrood in his brief threeyear stint as an MSP. Alongside Jenny Marra and Kezia Dugdale, he was seen as one of the rising stars of the 2011 crop of Labour newcomers, but was the only one of the three to take on the fight for the vacant leadership.

The

ex-teacher started his working career as an apprentice bricklayer with his father’s firm. He is currently the party’s health spokesman at Holyrood and has made life awkward for the SNP government on the thorny issue of NHS funding, amid claims that Scotland is failing to keep pace with England and over use of the private sector in Scotland’s NHS. It culminated in a vote of no confidence in health secretary Alex Neil earlier this year, but he survived.

Mr Findlay had been keen for Gordon Brown to stand for the leadership and only decided to run after the former prime minister ruled himself out.

The left-winger has argued that Labour needs to be more radical in order to challenge a Scottish Government under a Nicola Sturgeon leadership.

The 45-year-old is a member of the Red Paper Collective, a left-wing group that has urged Labour to go further in its proposals for more powers for the Scottish Parliament, and devolve income tax in full.

He has also called for a national house-building programme, full employment, the living wage and more apprenticeships.