Kezia Dugdale has become the youngest-ever leader of the Scottish Labour Party, beating Ken Macintosh.

The MSP won the contest by a large majority, taking 72.1 percent of the vote, compared with 27.9 percent taken by Macintosh.

The 33-year-old succeeds Jim Murphy, following his resignation in June, after Labour lost all but one of its 41 Scottish seats in the general election.

She promised to work "night and day" to reverse the party's fortunes, adding: "We are down, but we are not out."

Dugdale becomes the eighth leader of the Labour group at Holyrood since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament 16 years ago. She faces an uphill struggle to revitalize the Scottish Labour Party in the wake of the rise in popularity of the SNP, according to the Scotsman , who returned 56 of Scotland's 59 MPs and are currently polling at 60% for next year's Scottish election.

In a message to voters, she said: "Take another look at the Scottish Labour party.

"I am not so presumptuous to ask instantly for your vote. But at the recent election 700,000 of you stuck with us, but many chose someone else. All I ask is that you take a fresh look at the Scottish Labour party under my leadership," she added. "We are changing. I am part of a new generation. Someone without the baggage of the past."

She previously said: "If I am elected tomorrow I'll hit the ground running. Because for too many people in Scotland their ability to get on in life isn't determined by their talent, hard work and ambition, but by the circumstances they were born into," she said.

"I want a Scotland that backs parents who just want the best for their kids, young couples trying to buy their first home and someone who wants to take a risk by starting a new business."

Labour MSP Alex Rowley, a former aide to Gordon Brown , was elected as the party's new deputy leader.

RELATED STORIES