SCOTTISH Labour’s Anas Sarwar has pledged to “reunite” his party as he announced his bid to become the next Scottish leader.

Sarwar, a former MP who lost his seat in 2015 when Scottish Labour was virtually wiped out at Westminster, is the second candidate to declare in the contest to succeed Kezia Dugdale.

She stood down suddenly last week, leaving the party in Scotland looking for its fourth leader since the independence referendum in 2014.

Richard Leonard, a former trade-union organiser who was elected to Holyrood in 2016, has already confirmed he is running for the job.

Sarwar, 34, who became an MSP last year, said the leadership contest was an election “nobody wanted or expected” after Dugdale dramatically quit the role.

With the party having won seven seats in June’s snap general election, compared to just the one it managed to hold on to in 2015, he said: “Labour is revitalised in Scotland and I am ready to unite our party and lead us back to power.

“The people of Scotland do not need a Labour Party that is fighting itself.

“They need a united Labour Party in Holyrood that is fighting the SNP and ready to form Scotland’s next government.

“They need a united Labour Party across the UK working together to elect Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister.”

Like Dugdale, who campaigned against Corbyn in the last UK Labour leadership election, Sarwar is regarded as a centrist within the party.

He has to date received parliamentarian backing from McNeill and Whitford along with MSPs Jackie Baillie and Daniel Johnson.

As well as being Scottish Labour’s health spokesman at Holyrood, Sarwar is also a former deputy leader of the party under former leader Johann Lamont.

A committed Unionist like his rival Leonard, during his stint as deputy leader he played a key role in shaping the party’s campaign for a No vote in the independence referendum.

During a Radio Scotland interview yesterday Sarwar was pressed on issues including why Labour had lost so much support since the independence referendum and why he was sending his children to a fee paying school.

On the first, he admitted the referendum had caused Labour to lose considerable support – though denied the party had sided with the Tories. He went on to say with “indyref2 off the table” he wanted to build “a coalition of support” among those who voted Yes as well as those who voted No in the independence referendum.

He said that he “would never be ashamed for his support for Scotland to remain in the UK” and added: “I want Scotland to be at the heart of the United Kingdom.”

Pressed on sending his children to a private school while his party supported state education, he said he had taken a decision which he felt was right for his children and he wanted all children to fulfill their potential.

Glasgow MSP Pauline McNeill and East Lothian MP Martin Whitfield will jointly run his campaign, with Sarwar pledging: “Over the coming weeks I will set out my positive vision for Scotland’s future, rooted firmly in Labour’s values.”

He also thanked the “many friends and colleagues” who had urged him to put himself forward for the leadership.

McNeill said: “Anas has the experience and energy to take on the challenge to transform us from being an opposition party to being the next Scottish Government. I know he can unite our party behind our common aims and socialist values.”