Miliband vows to support Gray's fight for Holyrood

NEW Labour leader Ed Miliband has promised to throw himself into the Scottish party's campaign to win back power at next year's Holyrood elections.

Speaking at a gathering of Scottish delegates at the party conference in Manchester, he praised Scottish Labour's performance at the general election and the "determined" leadership of Iain Gray.

He told Mr Gray: "I know the importance of the Scottish elections next May and much of my leadership will be devoted to working with you between now and then to make sure what we know can happen does happen and you become First Minister of Scotland."

With Labour still coming to terms with the close result which handed Mr Miliband the leadership, he said his first responsibility was to unify the party.

He told the delegates: "As far as I'm concerned, the leadership election is now another country. I'm grateful to my supporters, but I will use people from across the party in order to advance our cause."

He said the party had to show humility and rebuild trust with the electorate.

"We have a fantastic record in government for the last 13 years, but we also have to recognise we made mistakes."

He said Labour had to bring back some "old-fashioned inspiration" to the party.

"Many people voted for the Liberal Democrats or other parties because they were looking for something different and they thought all parties were the same. We've got to convince people we have something different to offer."

Addressing the conference today Mr Gray said a Labour victory in next year's Scottish Parliament elections will help pave the way for Mr Miliband to become Prime Minister.

Echoing the new leader's "I get it" message, Mr Gray said: "Ed Miliband gets Scotland."

He said Mr Miliband respected the autonomy of the Scottish leader and the Scottish party and realised that success in next year's Holyrood elections could be a platform for him to lead the party to victory at the next UK election.

Following Mr Miliband's narrow win in the leadership election at the weekend, Mr Gray is expected to be given a place on the Labour Party's UK national executive.

Mr Miliband has already invited him to join the shadow cabinet. However, Mr Gray has told him it would be impractical for him to travel down regularly for its weekly meetings.

Mr Gray used his speech to announce that if Labour wins power at Holyrood next year, he would introduce a Scottish living wage of over 7 an hour for government and NHS staff.