THE man behind Scottish Labour's biggest election fight in May has admitted the party was bland and uninspiring for years, failed to engage with voters and has been out-classed by Alex Salmond.

Dominic Dowling, pictured below, who is masterminding Labour's Glasgow City Council campaign, said Labour faces a "politician of genuine calibre" in Salmond.

Salmond had "connected with the electorate in a way that none of Labour's post-devolution Scottish leaders has done," Dowling said online. He also attacked Labour's "abysmal" performance last May, and said one problem was being seen as "a party principally of English interests".

Dowling, 29, is the election agent for all 45 Labour candidates in Glasgow. However, his many comments on the Labourhame website last June and July, when the party was reeling from the SNP's Holyrood landslide, seem more likely to lift Nationalist hearts.

In one, Dowling wrote: "It amazes me Alex Salmond is still ridiculed by party members ... how many would be prepared to debate him face to face? Dislike the man, his party and his policy if you will, but to deny he has connected with the electorate, in a way that none of Labour's post-devolution Scottish leaders has managed to do, is ridiculous. He is a politician of genuine caliber [sic], and sets a high benchmark for our next leader."

In another, Dowling criticised Labour's efforts during the 2007-11 parliament: "Labour offered no demonstrable opposition to the minority SNP administration which could genuinely be considered to be inspirational to the ordinary activist", meaning "volunteers were bereft of an emphatic message" on the doorstep in 2011.

Unless Labour got its message out "through grassroots campaigning ... the results of next year's council elections could be devastating", he said.

Dowling also said Scottish Labour was seen as "a party of British interests", not Scottish ones, and this was "one contributory factor for Scottish Labour's abysmal performance at the ballot box".

He concluded: "Labour has failed to use Holyrood to demonstrate its commitments to Scottish affairs; delivery of devolution was the zenith of the party's success in this area, and since then it has regressed to being seen as a party principally of English interests."

James Dornan, SNP MSP for Cathcart and agent for several council candidates, said: "Mr Dowling has a key role in Labour's election campaign, and his assessment of the current state of the party is devastating. This is a body blow to Labour's crisis-hit campaign in Glasgow, and beyond."

A Labour spokesman said: "Scottish Labour is learning important lessons from the Holyrood election – ones which many raised during the review and which are hardly a secret. It is changing and facing up to these lessons, so this is a pretty bizarre attack from the SNP."