Kezia Dugdale has announced she is backing Owen Smith to become leader of the Labour Party.

The Scottish Labour leader’s announcement comes after a majority of constituency Labour parties backed Jeremy Corbyn in the contest for leader of UK Labour.

Corbyn and Smith are set to clash at a hustings in Glasgow on Thursday with ballot papers in the contest being sent to Labour members and registered supporters on Monday.

Ms Dugdale gave her reasons for supporting Smith in a column in the Daily Record.

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She points out that Corbyn has “lost the confidence” of his parliamentary colleagues, adding Labour Party members cannot “pin our hopes on a leadership who speak only to the converted”.

Ms Dugdale wrote: “As Labour Party members, we may not like how we reached this position but we have a decision to make.

“Owen Smith gets my vote. I believe he can unite our party and move us on from the divisions that exist under the current leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

Contest: Dugdale back Smith ahead of current leader Corbyn. PA

“Owen understands that to have a chance of implementing Labour values, we need to win over some of those who didn’t vote for us at the last election.

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“We can’t pin our hopes on a leadership who speak only to the converted, rather than speaking to the country as a whole.

“My only public comment on Jeremy’s leadership before this contest was to say he had lost the confidence of his parliamentary colleagues. That’s a fact.

“More than 80% of Labour MPs expressed a lack of confidence in Jeremy’s leadership. If 80 per cent of my colleagues in the Scottish Parliament didn’t support me, I wouldn’t be able to do the job – even though I received 72 per cent of the votes when party members and trade unionists in Scotland elected me to be their leader.”

The MSP for Edinburgh and Lothian added: “I don’t think Jeremy can unite our party and lead us into government. He cannot appeal to a broad enough section of voters to win an election. I believe Owen can.

“There will be some who think I should stay out of this contest, but now, more than ever, our party needs leaders who will stand up and be counted.

“As the most senior female elected leader in the Labour Party across the UK, I feel a particular responsibility to speak out.

“I believe Owen can deliver the Labour government this country needs, so he gets my vote.”