See the YouGov poll results

THE scale of the challenge facing Wendy Alexander, favourite to replace Jack McConnell as leader of the Scottish Labour party, is revealed in a YouGov poll which shows that only 7% of voters would like to see her as first minister.

According to the survey, she is considerably less popular than Alex Salmond, the first minister, who has an approval rating of 38%. She also trails behind McConnell, who is at 10%, and she is level with Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Tory leader. Only Nicol Stephen, leader of the Liberal Democrats, is more unpopular, with only 5% saying they would like to see him running the country.

The poll, conducted in the wake of Alexander declaring her candidacy for the Labour leadership, shows she is an unknown quantity to most voters, compared with Salmond.

While he is seen as more arrogant, he is also perceived to be friendlier and to have better ideas than Alexander. However, the most significant finding is that more than 40% of voters felt unable to venture any opinion on her.

Nominations in Labour’s leadership contest are not due to close until noon on Tuesday, but Alexander is expected to have the support of sufficient MSPs to avoid a confrontation from the left of the party.

This weekend she announced plans to set up a “virtual think-tank” to float ideas outside Scottish Labour’s traditional formal policymaking process. Its first work will be on families, housing and crime.

Alexander said she was concerned that parents were creating “cotton wool kids” out of a misplaced fear of paedophiles on the street, while paying too little attention to the threat of paedophiles using the internet.

“We are obsessed by stranger danger, but we have to make sure we don’t miss the electronic stranger danger on-line,” she said, adding she wanted more “creative play and child-friendly planning and play parks”.

She will also make reestablishing Labour’s presence in the Highlands a priority, with her think-tank looking at how to stem the decline in the rural population that has been caused by a shortage of housing.

On crime the think-tank will examine community policing and tackling underage drinking.

Salmond yesterday said Alexander would be a “a formidable opponent”, but implied she would be controlled by her mentor Gordon Brown. “She’s clearly well connected with Labour in London.”

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