Kezia Dugdale has insisted she will not resign as Scottish Labour leader if her party comes third at the Holyrood election.

Speaking to STV's political editor Bernard Ponsonby on the day a poll indicated that her party will win less seats than the Tories, Dugdale said that she had a "huge mandate" for leadership and a "plan and a mission" to make Scottish Labour successful again.

Dugdale said: "I have a huge mandate to lead the Scottish Labour party. When I put my name forward for the job I took some time to consider what I would do with the job, if I had the ideas - the plans, to turn around the fortunes of my party.

"I came up with the plan. I went to my colleagues and I said, 'I am going to do this but I need to do it for the long term'. As I said to you already tonight our problems didn't happen overnight they won't be fixed overnight but I have a plan and a mission to the fortunes of the Scottish Labour party around and I intend to continue doing it."

Dugdale was then asked would she refuse to resign in any circumstance, no matter what the result was.

She said: "Categorically - absolutely not. I am in this for the long haul. I believe in my party. It has tremendous achievements behind it and I believe a very bright future."

The Labour leader was also questioned on her party's manifesto commitment to oppose Trident which was launched earlier on Wednesday.

It states: "Following a vote at Scottish Labour Party Conference, we will make a submission to the UK Party's National Defence Review opposing the renewal of Trident, subject to a Defence Diversification Agency guaranteeing the retention of all existing jobs."

Dugdale was asked just how many jobs would be made redundant and subsequently need replaced as part of diversification.

She said: "Thousands of jobs. We are talking about thousands of jobs. Now, different unions, different organisations, put a different figure on it. That is why that caveat is there.

"There is not a figure in the manifesto and I am not sure there is one generally recognised overall figure but what I would say to you it is thousands of jobs therefore we take it very seriously."

Previously pro-Trident Labour politician Jackie Baillie said that the figure was 11,000. When asked if this would be the number of jobs which would require replacing she insisted that "the figure [which] would be used would be the one Unite Scotland advocate" but she "can't remember right now" what that figure was.

The Labour leader was asked why she would not respect the sovereign will of the Scottish people if pro-independence parties in Holyrood wanted a second referendum.

She answered: "Because I believe that the referendum we had just under 18 months ago reflected that."

Ponsonby: So you don't agree with the sovereignty of the people?

"I do. We gave...we had a referendum, we had a democratic process."

Dugdale then spoke of the mood of the public which she believes is firmly against a second referendum.

She said: "As I go round the country - meet people who voted Yes or No - there is a strong sense that the referendum we had was an incredibly healthy democratic experience. We spent two and a half years debating this issue inside out, we all walked to a polling station, and we cast our vote and the answer was No.

"And we did so on the premise that this was a once in a lifetime, once in a generation opportunity."

She continued: "We have to leave the referendum argument to the past. We have to focus on the future of Scotland using the powers that we have got. Bernard, the reality is that there is no appetite in Scotland for a second referendum from people who voted either Yes or No".

Election Face to Face features party leaders in the Holyrood elections being interviewed by STV News Political Editor Bernard Ponsonby:

It is screened on STV Glasgow and STV Edinburgh at 8.30pm and then on Scotland Tonight on STV at 10.30pm.