KEZIA Dugdale was yesterday forced to step into a row sparked by extraordinary comments made by the London mayor Sadiq Khan suggesting that independence supporters were essentially racists.

The Scottish Labour leader took to the airwaves in a desperate bid to close down the controversy which overshadowed her party’s weekend conference in Perth.

The Labour MSP said she “utterly refutes” any suggestion Khan had implied such a view and stressed she “never would suggest that the SNP are an inherently racist party”.

Khan, the Labour mayor of London, prompted an angry response when he wrote in a newspaper article on Saturday that there was “no difference” between nationalism and those who try to “divide us on the basis of our background, race or religion’’.

He later insisted, in a speech to the Scottish Labour conference, the same day, that he was “not saying that nationalists are somehow racist or bigoted’’.

But as he addressed party activists he maintained: “There’s no difference between those who try to divide us on the basis of whether we’re English or Scottish, and those who try to divide us on the basis of our background, race or religion.”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the comments were a “sign of the sheer desperation and moral bankruptcy that has driven so many from Scottish Labour’s ranks”.

In an interview on BBC One’s Sunday Politics programme, Dugdale was asked if she wanted to distance herself from Khan’s “absurd claim” made in the Daily Record.

“I think that Sadiq Khan was very clear yesterday that he wasn’t accusing the SNP of racism,” Dugdale said.

“What he was saying very clearly, though, was that nationalism, by its very nature, divides people, divides communities. That’s what I said in my speech yesterday. I said that [we’re] living in a divided and fractured country, a divided and fractured society. Our politics is forcing us constantly to pick sides – you’re Yes or No, Leave or Remain.

“This brings out the worst in our politics, the worst in our politicians, and all the consensus and progress that we normally find in the grey area is lost.”

Presenter Andrew Neil pointed Dugdale to a comment said to have been made by Labour MSP Anas Sarwar that “all forms of nationalism rely on creating an us versus them. Let’s call it out for what it is”.

Challenged that her party was “implying” that the Scottish Nationalists are racist, Dugdale replied: “I utterly refute that that is what Sadiq Khan said. And I have never suggested, and never would suggest, that the SNP are an inherently racist party.”

Former Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray was also asked about Khan’s remarks during the Sunday Politics Scotland show and said: “I think the way it’s been construed hasn’t necessarily been very helpful, but he’s very clear about what he’s said.

“What he said was that the politics of nationalism is divisive and I think anybody who’s lived through Scottish politics in recent years would have to agree that that’s the case.”

Khan’s comments provoked furious comments on social media, with dozens of Yes supporters, objecting to their case being depicted as racist.

Among them was Asif Khan, director of the Scottish Poetry Library.

Khan posted on Twitter: “My father stood for @theSNP in Dundee in the 70s. We walked passed NF graffiti daily. @SadiqKhan – you’re not speaking in my name #Scotland”.

An SNP spokesman said: ‘’This was a shambolic and rambling interview by Kezia Dugdale, whose attempts to deny something which was clearly and unequivocally stated were just embarrassing.”