Andrew Whitaker: Labour's prospects at Holyrood look good – but party is going to have to engage with Westminster

LABOUR'S commanding and consistent opinion poll lead over the SNP suggests the party is well placed to return to power at Holyrood in May's elections.

That factor, combined with Alex Salmond's ailing administration looking tired and unable to get policies such as the supermarket tax through parliament, makes it hard to imagine a second-term SNP government, although you should never write off the SNP leader.

One question that has not been asked so far is what would a Labour administration look like; how would Iain Gray fare as First Minister?

Should Labour win in May, it will take office in a political world radically different to the one that existed when the party was turfed out of power in 2007.

For starters, Labour is now out of power at Westminster and a Gray administration would undoubtedly come into conflict with the Tory-Lib Dem coalition UK government, which is clearly determined to ensure Scotland takes its share of the spending squeeze.

That confrontation may play to Labour's advantage with Scottish voters, but the party needs to articulate during this year's election campaign how it would engage with Westminster. Continuing with the SNP's tactic of simply claiming Scotland is being sold short in funding from Westminster is unlikely to wash and Labour would perhaps be best advised to challenge Lib Dem Scotland Office ministers, such as Michael Moore, who appear to be acting as salesmen for the coalition's cuts.

There's also the policy area. For example, it's hard to see how Labour could scrap the free prescriptions policy of the SNP – a measure popular with Labour voters.

But arguably the most interesting question is how would Gray fare as a First Minister. The Labour leader lacks the bombastic style and classy debating skills of Salmond, but it is not that hard to imagine him as a workmanlike First Minister who quietly gets on with the job.

The question of who Gray would have in his Cabinet is also worth thinking about, assuming the party does not go into coalition with the Lib Dems – an unlikely prospect, given the make-up of the UK coalition government.

There may well be a return to front-line politics for former party leader Wendy Alexander, and Labour's finance spokesman Andy Kerr is likely to occupy a key role. But it's hard to imagine the current Labour shadow cabinet matching the SNP's front-bench that includes big hitters such as Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney unless Gray introduces some new blood.

Perhaps springing a few surprise names for his Cabinet would help make a Gray Cabinet less, well, grey and more colourful. Cabinet places for the former trade union official John Park, who is running Labour's election campaign, and Hugh Henry, the combative convener of Holyrood's public audit committee, might be astute choices.