TODAY is Election Day. It’s probably one of the most important elections in recent memory. It will be an election that could come to define an age – called in the heat of a Brexit impasse in the House of Commons that could result in our nation taking a further wrong turn.

We should ask ourselves, is our country better off than nearly 10 years ago, when the Tories first came to power?

We should ask ourselves if our public services are better.

We should ask ourselves if our NHS – our greatest ever creation – is in good health, or even in good hands.

In the past few days, a visual metaphor of why our NHS is not in good hands was provided. Boris Johnson could not even bring himself to look at the photograph of a four-year-old child lying on a hospital waiting room floor. He could not bring himself to look at the real-life consequences that his decisions, and those of Tory before him, have had.

Not sufficient with a lack of empathy, the Prime Minister then confiscated the phone to avoid the question, before being embarrassed into returning it.

In Scotland, from the fiasco of failing to open a new children’s hospital in Edinburgh, to the documented failings of the flagship Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow, a simple truth is revealed. Those charged with the custodianship of our NHS – the SNP – have instead obsessed on how to create the conditions for an utterly unnecessary and divisive independence referendum.

But if this election is a choice about the direction of our country – either Scotland or the UK – there is only one choice that is genuinely transformative. One choice that focuses on our lives. One choice for change.

Labour’s commitment is to invest in our city, our communities and our lives. Labour will invest £6billion in existing houses to provide warm homes for all, creating 35,000 new jobs and reducing the average home energy bill by £417 a year.

The last time the UK put its faith in Labour, after a long period of Tory neglect, we saw some of the most transformative changes to people’s lives.

Earlier this week, I reminded a housing hustings organised by the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations that by electing a Labour government, our city was able to put our case to a Labour chancellor. Gordon Brown, born in our great city, listened carefully. We removed crippling housing debt and facilitated the transformation of our communities.

Ask yourself: is our country better off than it was a decade ago? After a decade of austerity. After nearly a decade of divisiveness on Scottish independence.

We have a choice. If you believe that this country needs change, if you believe that we are worse off than a decade ago, if you believe that we can do better than this, you need to vote for it. The choice is in your hands.