Michael Marra has been announced as the next Scottish Labour leader.

He received 4266 votes from Labour members, compared with Joe Fagan’s 2485.

Almost half of party members turned out to vote in the leadership contest.

Marra takes over as leader following Anas Sarwar’s decision to stand down in order to take up a seat in the House of Lords.

Speaking after the votes were read out, Marra said: “It is the honour of my life to be elected leader of the Scottish Labour Party.

“To be entrusted with the leadership of our Scottish Labour Party is a singular honour and a great responsibility.

“I am grateful for your trust and take on the duty of advancing our cause of a fairer, more equal Scotland with all that I can possibly give.”

He went on to thank his opponents, Joe Fagan and Monica Lennon, and praised them for their ideas about how the party needed to change.

He said: “Joe argued for a politics rooted in people and place, for less control in the centre and more control for local communities. That should be the case in our country and in our party.

“Monica was right to say we need to reconnect with the trade union movement that birthed the Labour party.

“Her record delivering change through parliament is also a template for how Labour should behave in opposition – robust in our criticism of the SNP, yes, but also making our own change.”

Marra continued: “Scots know what we are against. They can’t tell you what we are for… Social justice. Eradication of poverty. Good work. Good housing. Good public services. The good life for working people. An economy where everyone has a fair chance in life, which redistributes power, wealth and opportunity.”

Marra inherits a party that had a historically bad result in May’s Scottish Parliament election. They will lead a group of just 17 MSPs.

That makes them the joint second-largest party at Holyrood, tied with Reform UK, but there remains a gulf between Labour and their SNP rivals.

Anas Sarwar fell well short of his goal to become first minister of Scotland, and swapped Holyrood for the House of Lords shortly afterwards.

He announced he would be standing down from the Scottish Parliament, and had accepted a peerage (despite previously calling for the House of Lords to be abolished) so he could become a minister in Andy Burnham’s government.

We asked the pollster Mark Diffley to spell out some of the issues that Marra will have to tackle.

He didn’t mince his words: “The party has become a bit of an irrelevance, and I think that is the biggest hurdle that they face going forward.”

Diffley said the majority of people didn’t know the leadership candidates or even that there was a contest going on.

So what does the pollster think Marra needs to do?

Diffley spells out three priorities: become relevant, develop a relationship with the prime minister (who he says is currently popular in Scotland) and spell out appealing policies.

Some aspects of that will be easier than others.

One senior party insider agreed with much of Diffley’s analysis, warning “it’s not an easy inbox”.

They told me there’s a need to change approach, and Labour might look to learn from a rival party – the Scottish Greens.

The Green strategy has been to get their policies taken on by the SNP. You’ll often hear the Greens talk about Scottish government decisions and essentially say: ‘that was our idea’.

And Labour, this insider argues, should be taking the same approach.

There could be offers to back SNP budgets in return for more public control of buses or higher wages for care workers, for example.

At future elections, Labour could then have tangible “wins” to point at.

It would be a change in approach from a party that tended to oppose or abstain on budgets in the last parliament.

It’s a view shared by another party figure, who called for a constant “SNP bad” approach to be ditched, saying “the electorate rejected that wholesale”.

They added that Scottish Labour had to be “far more considerate about where we pick our battles”, and said that they should approach SNP policies, like cutting the number of health boards, constructively.

And that’s not the only pressing issue the new leader may have to address.

While many think Andy Burnham has had a good start as prime minister, there is concern within Scottish Labour about some aspects of Number 10’s approach north of the border.

Some told me they believe the prime minister should have made more visits to Scotland. And another said Downing Street had been “a bit all over the shop” when it came to a second independence referendum.

And that brings us to an age-old area that could prove tricky for Marra: the constitution.

Andy Burnham seemed to set hares running last week in the Commons when he suggested there was a scenario where a second Scottish independence referendum could be on the table.

His spokesperson quickly rowed back on the comments, but SNP figures couldn’t believe their luck when the door seemed to be opened (even just slightly) to a second vote.

It’s an issue that the new leader of Scottish Labour will have to engage with.

Both Marra and his opponent Fagan did, at times in this contest, seem to struggle to articulate exactly where Scottish Labour stands on the question of a second referendum.

Perhaps one area where the new leader may have a slightly easier time is managing their group of MSPs.

It would be a bit of a mean joke to say this is easy when there’s not that many of them – but there’s an element of truth here for Scottish Labour.

This wasn’t a particularly ill-tempered contest, and there weren’t vast ideological differences between Joe Fagan and Michael Marra.

Joe Fagan is unlikely to make life particularly difficult for Michael Marra.

Although it’s important to note that this contest hasn’t been a bed of roses, with Monica Lennon labelling the party “quite nasty” when she failed to make the final leadership ballot.

But the overall state of Scottish Labour, and its pattern of decline at Holyrood, will be the most pressing concern for the winner.

The party is in a hole, and getting out of it will fall to Michael Marra.

Getting this movement to a more positive destination is possible, but it looks like a gruelling task.

There’s an old joke involving someone asking for directions, and the reply comes: “Well, if I were you, I wouldn’t start from here.”

Perhaps he wouldn’t want to start from here, but he doesn’t get a say in that.