KEZIA Dugdale has conceded defeat to the SNP at the Holyrood elections, more than two months before the vote takes place.

The Scottish Labour leader said that she believed her party would come second on May 5, despite arguing that her flagship policy to raise income tax to offset public spending cuts had attracted widespread public support.

However, she rejected speculation that Labour may finish behind the Tories, insisting that her party would remain the official opposition in the next parliament.

She said that she was looking at a "long-term" project to rebuild her party, taking a markedly different approach from her predecessor Jim Murphy who famously claimed Scottish Labour would not lose a single seat at the general election despite polling evidence strongly suggesting he was heading for disaster.​

The Lothians MSP acknowledged that the SNP had a considerable lead in the polls and asked on the BBC's Daily Politics whether her party would finish second, replied "yes".

She added: "I don't believe for a second that the Tories are going to finish second in this election. Why? Because Ruth Davidson is a Tory. Just like George Osborne, just like David Cameron. She's advocating 1980s tax policies and has no idea for the future.

"She says she'd be a stronger opposition to the SNP, yet tomorrow she's going to vote for their budget. How could they possibly be a strong opposition in that context?"

Scottish Conservative chief whip John Lamont said: "The party that formed the first two administrations at the Scottish Parliament now openly concedes defeat nine weeks before a vote has been cast.

"At least it now means that pro-UK voters have a clear choice. Either they pick a weak and divided opposition under Labour - with a chaotic plan on tax, a watered down stance on the Union, and no idea at all on Trident.

"Or they have the option of a strong, united opposition under Ruth Davidson, committed to holding the SNP to account, and insisting we are not dragged back to a second referendum."

Ms Dugdale defended her party's tax plan, to increase the Scottish Rate of Income Tax by 1p, as MSPs prepare for the final vote on John Swinney's controversial budget which includes hundreds of millions of pounds worth of cuts to council budgets.

She said: "For the first time the Scottish Parliament has a serious power, a serious choice to make, a different path for Scotland than Tory austerity. I'm putting forward a very clear, anti-austerity message.

"No longer is the Scottish Parliament just a conveyor belt for Tory cuts. The Labour Party in Scotland is the only party with a clear anti-austerity message and I think that's what the vast majority of voters in Scotland want to hear."