Jenny Marra MSP has been promoted to shadow health secretary in Jim Murphy’s first reshuffle as Scottish Labour leader.
The North East Scotland list member, who co-chaired Mr Murphy’s campaign, will take over from Neil Findlay.
It will also put her directly up against Dundee City East MSP Shona Robison, who became health secretary in Nicola Sturgeon’s cabinet.
Mr Murphy revealed every MSP selected will be in a new job, but insisted no choices were made based on whether or not they backed him to be leader.
He said: “Every member of the team has worked hard, but it’s time to shake things up.
“That means no member of the shadow cabinet will stay in their current post every member of the team will be on the move.
“This is a crucial time for Scotland and I will put together a team that can reach out to Scotland”
The Courier understands that Iain Gray will be shifted from finance duties to cover education, although senior Labour sources talked down the suggestion of this being a demotion for the former leader.
Instead they insisted Mr Murphy’s strong focus on tackling the problem of children falling behind at school meant he was “very keen” to have the ex-teacher covering the brief.
New deputy leader Kezia Dugdale’s main focus will be First Minister’s Questions, which she will handle until Mr Murphy finds a way to move from Westminster to Holyrood, but she will also explore ways to increase the party’s membership.
Both Mr Findlay and fellow leadership candidate Sarah Boyack have been “offered jobs”, according to insiders, although it was unclear what these would be, or who would replace Mr Gray in finance.
Full details are expected to be revealed today.
It came after Mr Murphy told party members Labour needs to channel a “restless anger” to stop it suffering the same electoral rot it did in the 1980s.