EAST Lothian MSP Iain Gray today confirmed he was considering a bid to succeed Wendy Alexander as Labour leader in the Scottish Parliament.
He said he was consulting fellow MSPs and his local party before making a final decision.
Mr Gray, currently the party's finance spokesman, is expected to face a contest with public services spokesman Andy Kerr and possibly two others – deputy lea
der Cathy Jamieson and health spokeswoman Margaret Curran.
But none of the candidates is expected to declare their intentions officially until after a meeting of party bosses at the end of the week to set a timetable for the leadership election.
Labour's first priority is likely to be ensuring it retains Glasgow East in the Westminster by-election sparked by the resignation of veteran MP David Marshall on health grounds. Defeat in one of the party's safest seats would be devastating for Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Ms Alexander resigned on Saturday following the decision by Holyrood's standards committee to recommend she should be suspended from parliament for a day for failing to declare donations on the register of interests.
Her decision to quit took colleagues by surprise. But there appears to be widespread agreement that there should be a contest to choose a successor rather than a "coronation".
The fact Ms Alexander was elected unopposed is seen as having weakened her position when she came under fire.
Mr Gray was a minister in the first Scottish Executive, but lost his Edinburgh Pentlands seat to Tory David McLetchie at the 2003 election and became special adviser to the then Scottish Secretary Alistair Darling before returning to the Scottish Parliament as MSP for East Lothian last year.
Speaking from Majorca, where he is currently on holiday, he told the Evening News: "I am speaking to colleagues and to the local party."
Mr Kerr and Ms Curran were yesterday said to be taking soundings as well, and Ms Jamieson, who is now acting leader, said she was "actively considering" putting her name forward.
Any Labour MSP can stand, but candidates have to have the support of one eighth of the Scottish Parliamentary Labour party – which currently means six MSPs, including the candidate.
In a radio interview today, Ms Alexander's brother Douglas, the UK international development secretary, said it had been a "tough decision" for his sister to resign "in very difficult circumstances".
He said: "I admire and respect my sister immensely. Those feelings, I have to tell you, don't extend to those nationalist MSPs who I do think engaged in a partisan fashion in the parliament's standards procedure.
"I simply ask the question: is politics in Scotland enhanced by the events or diminished?
"I think the daily attacks that rained in on Wendy and the tone of contempt Alex Salmond uses on a daily basis, I'm not sure they enhance people's respect for politicians."
He added: "I think Scotland deserves better than a politics of personal destruction."
The full article contains 498 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
