By Paul Hutcheon, Scottish Political Editor

WENDY Alexander's supporters have planned another orchestrated "ring- round" to the media in a desperate bid to prop up her flagging leadership.

A leaked Shadow Cabinet minute has declared that the widely ridiculed tactic of reading a pre-prepared "loyalty script" to selected journalists has been "successful".

Now a new script has been prepared in which her MSPs will read out typed notes on why Labour did not support the SNP's budget.

The revelation comes as Alexander continues to face questions about her leadership in the wake of her accepting an illegal £950 donation from Jersey tax-exile Paul Green.

She was rocked last month by claims that a member of her shadow cabinet, East Kilbride MSP Andy Kerr, was ready to replace her as leader.

The rumours resulted in shadow cabinet members being issued with typed scripts that praised Alexander.

The senior MSPs were told to read out the scripts to journalists in an attempt to convey loyalty to her.

However, the strategy backfired badly after the ring-round notes were leaked to the press. One section read: "I'm phoning because the whole of the Labour shadow cabinet is united behind Wendy's leadership and is fed up reading otherwise in the papers.

Now a shadow cabinet minute from January 30, which has been leaked to the Sunday Herald, claims the much-mocked strategy should be repeated: "It was agreed that the contact made with the press was successful and should continue. The script should be amended."

The additional bullet points relate to the SNP government's budget and set out why Labour could not vote for it. The first spoon-fed point for senior Labour MSPs is: "1. Suggestions that Labour should have done a deal with the SNP is ridiculous. JS John Swinney will NEVER do a deal with Labour because we are the only political force that can defeat the SNP."

It adds: "2. Success for JS would have been to bring forth a minority government's budget that had the support of all minority parties because of co-operation and negotiation. He not even sic attempted to engage the largest opposition party.

The script concludes: "3. Labour has made our priorities for the budget clear. We will speak to anyone at any time who wants to find a way of introducing social justice to the budget."

A Labour spokeswoman said: "We don't comment on leaks, but it is true to say that the mood at the shadow cabinet was upbeat. All the shadow cabinet are united behind Wendy's leadership and they were pleased that the media had finally started to reflect that."