SCOTTISH Labour has shelved plans for a special conference which would have considered support for a second independence referendum.

Leader Richard Leonard wanted to raise the possibility of holding a meeting in the spring to discuss the backing of a multi-option vote, according to reports last week.

But yesterday, following a meeting of the party’s executive committee, he instead announced that a review of its performance in the General Election would include developing a policy on federalism which “resonates with people across Scotland”.

In a statement he said the results would form the basis of the approach Scottish Labour will take “as we look forward to putting our positive case before the people of Scotland at the 2021 Holyrood elections”.

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He added: “We must in particular consider our position on the constitutional questions which dominated the General Election campaign: namely Scotland’s constitutional future and our relationship with the European Union – drawing on our tradition as the party of devolution.”

Labour lost all but one of its Scottish seats in December, with Edinburgh South’s Ian Murray left as the party’s only MP north of the border.

SNP Westminster deputy leader Kirsty Blackman said: “This is a huge blow to Richard Leonard, who appears to be Scottish Labour leader in name only – having been fatally undermined by his own party’s executive committee. Scotland is about to be dragged out of the EU against our will by a Tory Prime Minister we didn’t elect, after a decade of Tory austerity governments that we didn’t vote for.

“If in the face of that devastating reality, Labour sides with the Tories again and seeks to deny the people of Scotland a choice over our future – they will sink even further into irrelevance.”

Scottish Tory MSP Miles Briggs said: “This is another humiliating result for Richard Leonard. He was pushing for his party to give in to the SNP on indyref2, but he’s been stopped by his own executive.”