Miliband backs Gray to win Holyrood leadership race

LABOUR leader Ed Miliband today insisted Iain Gray was well placed to win the Scottish Parliament elections as all the political parties began campaigning for the May 5 poll.

Parliament was winding up at lunchtime today ahead of formal dissolution at midnight, signalling the official start of a six-week campaign.

First Minister Alex Salmond was due to address a rally of SNP MSPs at Our Dynamic Earth while the Tories were launching a leafleting blitz and Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott was preparing to campaign in Edinburgh today.

Mr Gray officially lodged his nomination papers as Labour candidate in East Lothian yesterday before beginning a 48-hour tour of battleground seats, with Portobello, in Edinburgh Eastern, as the first stop.

In an exclusive interview with the Evening News, Mr Miliband dismissed a weekend poll showing Mr Gray behind both Alex Salmond and Tory leader Annabel Goldie with just nine per cent rating him as the best potential First Minister.

Mr Miliband said: "Labour is ahead in most of the opinion polls. We know this is a tough fight, but I'm incredibly confident both in Iain's leadership and our prospects in this election because we have a good message and we have the right arguments.

"I strongly believe that Team Labour - me in Westminster, Iain here, Carwyn Jones in Wales - is the strongest team to take on the Tories." Mr Miliband also played down policy switches, which have seen Labour copy SNP pledges on freezing the council tax and rejecting graduate contributions.

Instead, he pointed to the party's new pledge cards which will be distributed across the country during the campaign.

He said: "If you look at our pledges, Iain has taken a very distinctive and forward approach on everything from the living wage, to jobs, to apprenticeships, to crime. You see a set of pledges which are distinctively Labour and give people a clear sense of what he stands for and where he will take Scotland.

"It has been a long journey back for Labour, to rebuild trust, to get over the defeat of 2007 and I think he has done that very well."

n Scottish church leaders today urged Christians to use their vote in the Holyrood elections.

They launched their own election resources website - www.churchesvote.org - to collate information about party policies and encourage Christians of all political persuasions to participate in the debate.

In a joint statement they said: "Elections are community events in which 'my' vote is not only for me but also an opportunity for each of us to express the needs of the whole community.