Alloa MP says Scottish Labour should back route to indy referendum

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Leishman said Scottish Labour had lost the support of working people to the SNP and had to bring back politics that acknowledges class.

The Alloa and Grangemouth MP said: "Referendums have a vital place in our democracy. And with referendums, let's also acknowledge that they create uneasy alliances, awkward bedfellows.

"The impact of that is clear when looking at the Scottish Labour Party. Scotland, I’m afraid, is still dominated by the constitutional question.

"Painting everyone as either a Nationalist or a Unionist has distracted Scots from the real political issue that affects us, that whether you're from Alloa or Aldershot or Stenhousemuir or Stoke, that politics is always about class."

He added: "Class must be put back on the political agenda. We must appreciate that by campaigning alongside Tories, who did so much damage to Scotland, that has been seen as a betrayal of our class.

"If we ever want a Scottish Labour government in Holyrood again, then we must appeal to what was once a large chunk of our core vote that left us for the SNP.

"Do we not see that competing just for a small unionist vote is swimming in crowded waters and will never lead to us being in government?"

Mr Leishman clarified he wasn't stating he backed independence but rather that there should be a route to another referendum.

However, speaking to The Scotsman, he added that if a 'No' vote was returned, there should be an agreed timescale before there could be another question to the public, an example being 25 years.

He added: "And if we do that then we will be back speaking to a huge number of Scots that left us. They might even listen to us again.

"Scotland needs to break the constitutional deadlock, and Scottish Labour needs to shift from our position of dogged inflexibility; otherwise, we are heading for the irrelevance of perpetual opposition.

"And we know that means never being able to put our Labour principles into action."