Scottish Labour plans cull of "deadwood" local councillors and creation of "political office" for Kezia Dugdale

The Sunday Herald can also reveal Dugdale wants a major shakeup of staffing by creating a new leader’s political office funded by the taxpayer.

Labour, which once regarded Scotland as fertile territory for electoral success, is re-grouping after a disastrous Holyrood election that saw the party slump to third place behind the Tories.

However, Dugdale has only been in charge for nine months and her colleagues believe she is the best person to lead them into the next Holyrood election.

It is understood she wants to make changes at all levels of the party in a bid to make Labour electable once again.

After the EU referendum is out of the way, one of her most pressing tasks will be planning for the 2017 local elections.

Labour still runs councils such as Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and Inverclyde, but party figures fear the SNP may romp home in these next year.

The party won 394 seats at the 2012 local polls, but sources close to Dugdale are unimpressed with the quality of some of its councillors.

Labour is also committed to gender balance, but the 2012 results makes grim reading for those backing equality.

Only 26.1 per cent of Labour councillors elected four years ago were women, way below the party’s level at Holyrood.

The Sunday Herald has been informed that discussions took place before the Scottish Parliament election about making it tougher for sitting councillors to be re-selected.

One key option on the table is mandatory interviews for all potential candidates, even sitting members, before they can make the panel.

Under-performing councillors would be weeded out and the new intake would be more representative of society.

Plans to increase the number of female candidates are also being considered.

A party source said the changes were long overdue.

“There is definitely a need to make big changes at a local level. Some of the councillors are deadwood and need to be replaced,” he said.

However, another insider said it would be “difficult” to change the selection procedure for councillors without it also applying to MSPs, MPs and MEPs.

Meanwhile, Dugdale also wants fundamental reform of the staffing structure that supports her and her MSP group.

A combination of Short Money – public cash that pays for the Opposition – MSP contributions and a Leader’s Allowance all fund Labour at Holyrood.

Dugdale supports a clearer structure that recognises the demands of her leadership role.

She wants to merge all the individual budgets and create a new leader’s political office.

This would include posts such as Chief of Staff, Communications Director, Policy Director, Political Director and Leader’s Aide.

A Support Unit would still aid the work of the wider group.

However, a lack of cash is believed to be a major obstacle.

The income streams in the previous Parliament gave Labour a budget of around £450,000, but the result on May 5 has created a six-figure black hole.

The future of her two key aides, Evan Williams and Blair McDougall, is also believed to be uncertain.

A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: "Since becoming leader Kezia Dugdale has made a series of reforms to renew the Scottish Labour Party including opening up party conference to external organisations and giving members a greater say over policy. This process will continue as we rebuild going forward.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: “The problem with Labour isn’t the candidates, it’s the ticket they're sent to stand on.

“That was resoundingly rejected by voters in the election, and if they don’t change it, it’ll be rejected next year too.”

An SNP spokesperson added: “After their worst election result in over a century, it’s no wonder Kezia Dugdale is seemingly looking for a clear out of Labour’s team.

“But Labour’s problems in Scotland won’t be solved by yet another round of internal wrangling - their main problem is that people simply don’t trust them any more after their toxic alliance with the Tories during the referendum, and the way they abandoned all principles during the election campaign by seeking to hike taxes on low-income workers.”