A SENIOR Labour figure will say today the party must change if it is to once again be successful in Scotland.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander will claim that, despite its mauling by the SNP last year, "the threats to Scotland are too great, and the risks too real, for Scottish Labour to settle for a quiet life of decline and defeat".

With an eye on the local government elections in May, Mr Alexander will say in a speech at the party's annual conference in Dundee: "We need to change and change radically – not to disavow our deepest beliefs, but to become a better expression of them.

"We need to change how we tell our story, who tells that story, and what that story tells the public about the Scotland we believe in, and its place in Britain and beyond.

"We need to change how we identify and select our candidates, how we organise and fund our campaigns, and how we develop and communicate our policies."

He will admit, as other senior figures have done since the SNP victory in last year's Holyrood elections, that too many voters saw Labour as being "more anti-Nationalist than pro-Scottish, too many saw us as a party of tribalists not a party of thinkers, too many felt Scotland had changed, and that Scottish Labour had not".

He will say the task facing the party is to demonstrate "that we are motivated by a sense of pride, passion, and possibility for Scotland".

Mr Alexander will also say that Labour must be "open-minded" on how to improve the devolution of powers but be "resolute in our rejection of separation".

Stressing the pro-Union message that will run throughout the conference, he will warn that without the "British connection" Scotland's global reach would be limited.

He will say: "From the eurozone crisis to the environment, from export markets to mass migration, interdependence – not independence – is the hallmark of our age."

Mr Alexander will also claim a "separate Scotland" would not have a place on the UN Security Council, would not have a seat in Nato, the G20, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. As part of the UK, Scotland is currently represented on all of them.

Labour's "stronger together, weaker apart" mantra will also be a key part of Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy's conference speech.

He will say: "The country that gave the world the television shouldn't be reduced to a spectator watching world events unfold beyond our influence on our TV screens.

"Separation is a powerful idea from the 19th century that is entirely unsuited to the complexities of influence in the 21st century.

"How does Scotland get its way in the world if we leave the UK, the one country with the unique influence of being in the EU, Nato, the Commonwealth and the G8?"

Mr Murphy will also claim independence will endanger jobs at the warship-building yards on the Clyde and Rosyth, including the two giant aircraft carriers currently under construction.

He will say: "Thousands of high-skilled jobs depend on building these aircraft carriers. But if Scotland leaves Britain the Clyde and Rosyth would be in a foreign country to the Royal Navy.

"The Navy has never built a warship in a foreign yard. If the SNP get their way, they would have achieved what the Tories at their worst including Heath, Thatcher and the emergence of the Far East shipbuilding has failed to do – sinking Clyde shipbuilding."