Scottish Labour leadership hopeful Anas Sarwar has said he would call former leader Richard Leonard on his first day in charge in a bid to unite the party.
The Glasgow MSP also said he would get in touch with fellow contender Monica Lennon, who he said would play a "huge role" in the party's future.
The pair took part in a virtual hustings for members in the Mid Scotland and Fife region on Saturday morning, discussing their approach to Scottish independence, child poverty and the recovery from Covid-19.
Both were asked what they would do in the early part of their new administration, with Mr Sarwar - who has been described by some as the favourite - putting the focus on uniting the party ahead of the election.
"We can only argue and seek to reunite the country or preach unity to the country if we demonstrate unity ourselves," he said.
Discussing his first day in office, Mr Sarwar told members: "I would call first of all Monica Lennon, because Monica's got a huge role to play in the future of our Labour Party and I want her to be at the heart of our team."
He added: "I would also call Richard Leonard on the first day, because Richard isn't just someone who has given three years of service to the Labour Party, he has given 30 years of dedicated service to the Labour and trade union movement and he is going to have a big part to play, not just in our parliamentary group in the next parliamentary term and I want him to be a big part of our team."
Both candidates pinpointed child poverty as a key issue for them, pledging to end it by 2030, with Ms Lennon setting a target of halving child poverty by 2025.
Mr Sarwar also spoke about his desire to bring a more tolerant style of politics to the Labour Party, describing Scotland's political landscape as "toxic".
"Our politics is currently designed to pull us apart," he said.
"How we confront that type of politics is absolutely crucial to how we rebuild the party and change Scotland and change the world at the same time."
READ MORE: Richard Leonard Quits: Candidates to be the next Scottish Labour leader
He added: "Part of how we deal with it is how we conduct ourselves.
"I fall into this trap, I know other politicians fall into this trap, there are times where we do get caught up in the bubble and there are times where we do fight with our opponents in other political parties in a way that we think gets us some reach amongst the bubble but for the wider public probably turns them off politics altogether.
"How we expose the failures of the SNP is really important but I think we've got to do it in sorrow rather than in anger."
From recent experience, Mr Sarwar said, the party has shown it is not enough to point out what they believe the Scottish Government is doing wrong, it must give an alternative to voters.
"Unless we offer the people of Scotland a credible alternative, people will still vote SNP and we'll continue to lose elections."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here