Labour's deputy leader Alex Rowley has been tasked with leading the party's campaign in this year's Holyrood elections.

With three months to go until the election the SNP is on course for a second majority government, while Scottish Labour is facing the prospect of battling with the Conservatives for second place.

Mr Rowley, who was election agent for former prime minister Gordon Brown, said he is "realistic about the polls".

The SNP have said Labour's list of regional candidates, which was revealed on Friday evening, has "totally flopped."

Mr Rowley stressed the importance of policy in the campaign, saying: "People have to think that Labour is standing up for Scotland, that Labour has a vision for the future of Scotland.

"For me policy, in particular vision, is more important than personality."

Mr Rowley, the MSP for Cowdenbeath, in Fife, will be responsible for the day to day running of the party's campaign in Scotland.

He said he was "delighted" to take on the role, adding: "We are in no doubt about the scale of the challenge we face, but Scottish Labour heads into the election in May full of confidence in our vision for Scotland. It's a vision based on three words - real change now.

"People are sick of austerity. Faced with the choice between cuts to schools and local services or using the powers of the Scottish Parliament, Labour will use the powers to stop these cuts by setting the Scottish rate of income tax one penny higher than George Osborne."

He described last year's general election, where Labour lost all but one of its seats in Scotland to Nicola Sturgeon's SNP, as a landmark for the party, stating: "Hundreds of thousands of people who had voted Labour previously, probably all their lives, moved away from Labour.

"It's about us rebuilding the trust with communities right across Scotland and that's what we want to be able to do. We will fight for every vote, we will go after every vote, but we need to be able to set out a clear direction for the future of Scotland.

"If we're demonstrating that Labour actually is the only party putting forward an alternative to austerity, an alternative view to how we move Scotland forward, then at least we have got that debate moving."

Labour has already said it would set income tax in Scotland 1p higher than the rest of the UK in a bid to raise almost £500m for education and local services.

Mr Rowley also said he hoped Mr Brown would join him on the campaign trail ahead of the May 5 vote.

The SNP have said Labour had been left the "the same old tired faces" following the announcement of their regional list.

Joan McAlpine MSP for South of Scotland said: "The Labour list results are a disaster for Kezia Dugdale, whose ambition to have new candidates elected at May’s election has totally flopped.

"It seems the same old faces have scooped the top spots – leaving the Scottish Labour leader with a near-impossible task of breathing some life into a party which has already lost nearly all credibility in the eyes of the Scottish public.

"This latest blow for Kezia Dugdale comes hot on the heels of polls showing Labour in Scotland slipping into third place behind the Tories and with their disastrous plans to tax poorer workers to make them pay the price of Tory austerity unveiled this week, they are a party which is still going backwards.

"The Labour party is fast running out of time to put forward any credible policies ahead of the Scottish Parliament election on 5th May, a challenge which will be even harder now that Kezia Dugdale’s been lumbered with the same old tired faces."