Problems with Scottish Labour are “systemic”, leadership candidate Michael Marra has said.

Mr Marra is taking on fellow MSP, and former South Lanarkshire Council leader, Joe Fagan, to replace Anas Sarwar after he was sent to the House of Lords and made a UK minister.

Speaking at a press conference in Glasgow on Monday, the North East region MSP said his party had not changed with the country since devolution, which has resulted in six successive downturns in electoral fortunes at Holyrood.

Speaking to party members, he said: “Dissatisfaction with Keir Starmer was a storm from which the Scottish Labour Party had failed to make itself weatherproof.

“That hurts, but if we’re serious about recovery, we have to face up to it.

“There is no silver bullet – our problem is not just the leader, or our rulebook, the organisation, the message or the policies, it’s all those things interacting with each other.

“It is systemic.

“Devolution created a new political arena and Scotland changed, work changed, communities changed, old loyalties weakened.

“Scotland’s understanding of itself changed – but we didn’t.”

To bring the party closer to voters, Mr Marra proposed a series of regional assemblies to decide on issues that Scottish Labour would champion.

“We will hold open assemblies that bring together local people, workers, community organisations, business and public servants,” he said.

“We will all ask what matters in their lives and places, then we will do something too rare in politics – we will publish what Scotland told us, select issues raised by citizens for formal parliamentary action and report honestly on what we achieve.”

The party would also provide an “honest explanation” when they were not able to make progress on the issue, the candidate said.

The MSP added that he wanted to form a “cross-party commission” which would deliver a set of proposals to halve child poverty by the end of the decade.

And he said a new tax should be created on supermarkets to “claw back” the money made through the minimum unit pricing policy, which increased the cost of alcohol in a bid to discourage problem drinking.

The money made through the levy would be used to provide addiction services.

“I am the candidate who can deliver now for Scotland,” he said.

“And by delivering for Scotland, we can start to prove our case.

“That’s the Scottish Labour offer to the people of Scotland that is for something, not just against something.

“For our hearts: the moral crusade for social justice; cutting poverty through work, housing and the welfare state.

“For our heads: the best deal for a stronger Scotland in a changing UK.

“I know our party, I know its strengths and I understand the frustration that exists within it.

“I believe I can bring it together, not around me, but around the task that is in front of us.”