New Labour leader Iain Gray will name his shadow cabinet today, with contenders Cathy Jamieson and Andy Kerr expected to be given high-level posts.

The return of Mr Kerr, who has held the public finance and health briefs, to the finance portfolio is seen as a strong likelihood.

Mr Gray, as a minimum, must fill his own shadow finance post and that of shadow health secretary Margaret Curran, who has already been named as cabinet-level policy co-ordinator.

But there is little room to play with the new shadow cabinet. It would be a surprise if Richard Baker was not brought into the fold, given his role in the Gray campaign, but beyond that the guesswork kicks in.

Mr Gray, who avoided even mentioning the Prime Minister in the course of a 10-minute acceptance speech at the weekend, yesterday dismissed talk of a leadership contest as "ridiculous".

He also insisted his party could win the Glenrothes by-election if Labour could convince voters the party was on their side.

Mr Gray predicted that talk of a leadership contest would pass. "It seems to me that this is a relatively small group of MPs and I don't really understand the point they are putting," he told the BBC.

He denied Mr Brown had been a "disaster" for Labour, and described him as "one of the biggest political figures of my generation".

Labour's new Holyrood leader, whose formal job description is leader of Labour in the Scottish Parliament rather than Scottish party leader, dismissed talk of a turf war between himself and Scottish Secretary Des Browne over the job.

"For the first time, the leader of Labour in Scotland has a wider mandate - wider than MSPs, elected by MSPs as well, by affiliated trade unions and most importantly the whole membership of the Labour Party," he said.