KEZIA Dugdale was last night accused of having the same political stance as the Tories after she tried to outdo Theresa May on being more opposed to a second independence referendum.

Echoing comments made by the Prime Minister that she would “never stand by and let our Union drift apart”, the Scottish Labour leader yesterday declared her party could “never” support a second vote on whether Scotland should remain in the UK.

“In these 120 pages, you’ll find our cast iron guarantee that we will oppose a second independence referendum,” Dugdale announced as she unveiled her party’s manifesto for next month’s General Election.

“The Labour party — built on solidarity and co-operation — could never support taking our country down such a divisive path again.”

Many former Labour voters who supported independence switched to the SNP in the wake of the 2014 referendum, which saw Labour and the Tories controversially join forces in the pro-Union Better Together campaign.

With little evidence of Yes voters returning to Labour, Dugdale is pinning her electoral hopes on winning back support from Unionist voters who have moved over to May’s party.

After the Scottish Labour manifesto was unveiled opponents criticised it for devoting considerable parts to devolved issues such as education policy and the NHS, while offering “confusing” stances on reserved issues such as Trident.

While Scottish Labour are opposed to renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system, the UK party are in support of it.

Patrick Harvie, co-convener of the Scottish Greens and MP candidate for Glasgow North, said: “Scottish Labour share the same ground as the Tories on everything from denying Scotland the right to make a choice about our future, to renewing Trident nuclear weapons.”

The SNP’s Patrick Grady also seized on the Trident position, claiming it proved Scottish Labour was still a “branch office” of the UK party.

Dugdale was determined to cast off the label after former Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont famously used it to describe the party north of the Border when she stood down following the independence ballot.

“This is final proof, if it were needed, that Labour in Scotland still takes its orders from London — the “branch office” is back in business,” said Grady.

“Despite Labour’s Scottish conference voting against Trident — and last year’s Holyrood manifesto “opposing the renewal” — the party now backs a new generation of weapons of mass destruction in Scottish waters. That is a betrayal of its own membership, and shows where Labour’s priorities lie — spending countless billions of pounds on nuclear weapons instead of on tackling austerity and investing in our future.”

Labour lost 40 seats in Scotland in the 2015 General Election, with just one MP voted back to Westminster, as the SNP swept the board. Yesterday Dugdale said her party had “lost out because people who wanted to stop the nationalists voted for different parties”.

She told supporters her manifesto was a “bold agenda for change”.

Responding to criticism, a Scottish Labour spokesman said: “The SNP and the Greens joined forces to pass on a £170 million cut to local services this year and Patrick Harvie has abandoned all his principles to do whatever his SNP masters tell him.”

On Trident, the spokesman said that defence is a reserved issue.