LABOUR will continue to "fade into political irrelevance" in Scotland if it does not recognise the country's right to self-determination, an SNP MP has warned.
Tommy Sheppard, MP for Edinburgh East, criticised Labour leadership hopeful Jess Phillips after she claimed there shouldn't be another independence referendum.
He said the comments from the Birmingham Yardley MP, who spoke to Good Morning Scotland earlier, "smack of arrogance".
READ MORE: Jess Phillips: 'I don't think we should have another indyref'
Phillips had told the programme: "I think that some of the reasons that we lost in Scotland and have been losing in Scotland for some time – this isn't wholly down to the last General Election – is that we have, since the referendum up there, not necessarily had a clear position on the two big constitutional questions of the day.
"I think that people, when they look at a political party, if they are not certain on what they are saying on any one thing, they lose trust with the public.
"I don't think we should have another referendum on Scottish independence – 53% of the Scottish public in the General Election did not vote for a party that was promoting independence.
"I think that we should be talking about things that are relevant to the lives of people in Scotland.
"I can't see a circumstance where I think it would be better for Scotland to leave the UK."
Sheppard hit out at the leadership hopeful over her claims.
He said: "These comments smack of arrogance and the same high-handed, dismissive attitude that has caused support for Labour to collapse in Scotland.
"Labour clearly hasn't learned a thing and is still hopelessly out of touch if it thinks it can ignore democracy and deny people in Scotland a choice over our future.
"As long as Labour politicians think they can lecture from Westminster and refuse to respect Scotland's right to self-determination, they will continue to fade into political irrelevance.
READ MORE: Rebecca Long-Bailey confirms she will run for Labour leadership
"The SNP won a landslide victory at the general election, with over 80% of Scotland's seats represented by the SNP on a mandate of protecting Scotland's right to choose its own future – and the people of Scotland will have that choice."
At last month's election, Labour lost six of their seven MPs in Scotland - leaving just Ian Murray to represent a Scottish constituency for the party.
Meanwhile, the SNP gained a number of seats – increasing their total of MPs from 35 to 47.
So far the Labour leadership election has failed to address Scotland in detail. Before 2015, the party dominated Scotland, and had 41 MPs before the 2014 independence referendum.
READ MORE: Rebecca Long-Bailey sparks Labour row over Better Together
However in her announcement that she would be running for the top job, Rebecca Long-Bailey criticised Labour's work with the Tories as part of the Unionist Better Together campaign.
Under Corbyn the party's policy was not to stand in the way of indyref2, but to not grant a Section 30 order in the early years of a Labour government at Westminster.
It is unclear what direction the party could go in under a new leader.
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