She has refused to resign over the £950 illegal donation which was accepted by her leadership campaign team from Jersey-based businessman Paul Green.

Labour MSP Duncan McNeil said that Ms Alexander was given backing from her colleagues at their weekly briefing.

The politician has acknowledged mistakes had been made, but said she would fight on to clear her name.

Earlier, Mr Green said there had been "gross mismanagement" at the top of the Scottish Labour Party.

Ms Alexander claims she had not known that the cash broke electoral law.

The donation was illegal because it came from someone not on the electoral register.

In his first interview on the controversy, Mr Green told BBC Scotland that his donation was clearly a personal cheque.

Speaking later at the Scottish Parliament, Ms Alexander said: "I have never sought to mislead. I am not dishonest in any way and I have always believed that politicians should have the highest standards of integrity.

"My campaign did not set out to intentionally mislead or break the rules. Mistakes have been made.

"It would be easy to quit, but also wrong. To give up this job in these circumstances would be also to give up my reputation for integrity and honesty and I am not prepared to do that."

Meanwhile Charlie Gordon, who asked Mr Green for the donation, said he would make a decision on his political future later this week, but declined to be drawn on whether he would resign as a Labour MSP.

Ms Alexander said she would be informing the Electoral Commission watchdog "in full", adding: "For the record, there is repeated correspondence initiated by me personally dealing with the issue of permissibility and demonstrating my interest in ensuring that donations received were indeed permissible."

She said she now wanted to get on with the job of leading Labour at Holyrood and holding the SNP government to account.

(BBC)

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