THREE MSPs vying for the Scottish Labour leadership have set out their stall to members, as they face a final scramble to secure enough nominations to stand.

Joe Fagan, Monica Lennon and Michael Marra must all garner the signatures of three MSPs, three MPs and three affiliates, including two trade unions, by noon on Monday to formally enter the race.

Both Mr Fagan and Mr Marra have secured enough parliamentary support, with Mr Marra winning the backing of trade union Aslef.

But while Ms Lennon has Unison backing, she still stands one MP and one MSP short of the starting line.

While those battles continue, Ms Lennon told members at the Glasgow hustings on Wednesday: “The choice is stark.

“Either continue with the old ways that lost elections and talented MSPs or choose a leader with the vision, courage and empathy to make it electable.”

Offering to stop the party’s “sleepwalk into electoral oblivion,” she also hit out at “factionalism, dirty tricks and smears,” insisting in a thinly veiled message to deputy leader Jackie Baillie that she would not be “bullied” or “intimidated by those putting party control above principles.”

Also hitting out at “negative cowardly briefings,” Mr Marra argued the party “must change our culture,” adding: “If we don’t change, we’ll be here again in five years.”

Offering to “change more than the faces at the top,” Mr Fagan, currently backed by Ms Baillie and Lord Willie Haughey, said the party had to be “squarely on the side of the working people of this country.”

“I am standing to unite our party, to back our movement, to seize this moment and rebuild Scottish Labour as a party for working people of Scotland,” he said.