NICOLA Sturgeon aims to "eradicate" Labour from Scotland, one of the party's leadership hopefuls has claimed in a warning to activists.

Neil Findlay said the new First Minister's top priority was to "destroy" Scottish Labour before pressing for independence in a second referendum.

His comments came in response to Ms Sturgeon's first speech as leader to the SNP conference on Saturday.

She used the address to launch a withering attack on Labour, claiming the party had "lost its soul" and "abandoned social justice".

Dressed in Labour's traditional red, she attempted to win over its supporters by claiming the SNP was now Scotland's "party of true social democracy".

Mr Findlay said her comments revealed an SNP strategy to crush Scottish Labour as a stepping stone towards winning independence.

He said: "Nicola's ambition is to destroy the Labour Party.

"That's what her speech was all about, not her vision for Scotland.

"Nicola's ambition is not independence, it is to destroy the Labour Party and then independence is a project after that.

"It was clearly about how they eradicate the Labour Party from Scotland."

In a pitch aimed beyond the conference hall, Ms Sturgeon said tackling poverty and inequality would be her "personal mission" as First Minister.

She unveiled plans to improve childcare and increase NHS funding - and linked them to building confidence in the Scottish Government as an essential step towards winning independence.

Mr Findlay dismissed the SNP's claim to stand for social justice, highlighting the Government's failures to reform the council tax and make the living wage - a higher level of pay than the minimum wage - legally enforceable.

He also criticised Ms Sturgeon's flagship pledge to extend the small business bonus rates relief scheme, arguing it should be reformed to reward firms creating well-paid jobs.

"The rhetoric of the SNP is always more than the substance when it comes to talking about social issues," he said.

Mr Findlay, Labour's health spokesman at Holyrood, is contesting the Scottish Labour leadership with MP Jim Murphy and MSP Sarah Boyack.

Mr Findlay has promised to build 50,000 council or social homes if he leads Labour into government in Scotland in 2016, maintain free tuition for students, improve social care and cut youth unemployment.

He has also vowed to put Scottish Labour at the heart of the campaign against renewing Trident nuclear missiles.

A poll yesterday suggested Labour could win back support from the SNP if it pursued some of those policies.

Mr Findlay, who has won the backing of a number of trade unions, said: "I think that is encouraging, it shows there is a way back for us if we get the policy platform right.

"The polls are dire for Labour in Scotland, there's no ducking that. But we can start to claw that back."

If elected on December 13, he said he could stop the SNP making gains in May's UK General Election, as predicted by the polls.

He said: "The choice at the election will be David Cameron in Downing Street or Ed Miliband in Downing Street, that's the reality.

"I shudder and sweat at the prospect of Cameron again being in Downing Street

"The consequences of that for working people in Scotland and throughout the UK would be catastrophic.

"We have to focus people's minds on that choice."

Meanwhile, deputy leadership contender Katy Clark has claimed New Labour took Scottish Labour to the "edge of the abyss".

The left wing candidate claimed yesterday that abandoning New Labour for good would boost support for the party by 37 per cent.

The North Ayrshire and Arran MP responded to the latest Survation poll, describing it as astonishing. "It showed up to 37 per cent of SNP voters could come back to Labour but only if we abandon business as usual and adopt a radical set of policies - the policy platform I am standing on to be Scottish deputy leader.

"Our party in Scotland has been taken to the political abyss by the New Labour and its architects. Now is the time to choose change and choose the candidates of change".

Jim Murphy, the former Scottish Secretary, who is the frontrunner to succeed Johann Lamont as Scottish Labour leader, is often regarded as a leading New Labour Blairite.

Ms Clark went on: ""From a Living Wage backed by the full force of the law, to decommissioning Trident to help fund the permanent abolition of tuition fees, or the common sense approach of bringing our railways into public ownership, and my radical pledge for free childcare from the age of 12 months; it's there in black and white, it's what the people of Scotland are demanding.

"Business as usual will lose Scotland for Labour. It is time to win back the missing 37 per cent by abandoning New Labour for good."