19:26

The Scottish Labour leader, Richard Leonard, has openly backed a second EU referendum and said he would vote to remain, as he sought to fend off a torrent of criticism after his party lost both its MEPs in a humiliating rout in the European elections. Leonard has written to Scottish Labour members to say:



As leader in Scotland I accept that constitutional issues have cost us electorally over the last five years and that trust in us has been eroded. We can and we will rebuild that trust. My intention is to begin to set out a planned way forward over the coming weeks. Starting now, with firmly stating that I back the option to remain and that any Brexit deal should be ratified by a second public vote, one that has clear and credible options for remain and leave.

Leonard is likely to be pressed hard to confirm he wants this new stance on a second EU vote and backing remain to become Scottish Labour’s official policy, particularly at the weekly meeting of his MSPs at Holyrood on Tuesday.

If he does do so, that will boost increasing calls from the shadow cabinet today for Labour to embrace a pro-remain stance but put him at odds with Corbyn, the UK party and pro-leave groupings inside the Scottish party.

Leonard faced a furious backlash from party activists and parliamentarians, with calls for an emergency meeting of the party’s Scottish executive, following the worst election result for the Scottish party since 1910. It lost more than 200,000 votes last Thursday compared to the 2014 European election, coming in fifth behind the Scottish Conservatives.

His pro-remain critics, including Ian Murray MP and Martin Whitfield MP, have accused him of allowing the Scottish party to again become a “branch office” of the UK party under Jeremy Corbyn. They are likely to be furious Leonard ignored repeated calls to adopt a much firmer pro-remain stance before last week’s election.

Senior party sources say they repeatedly told Leonard the party would suffer heavily in the election unless they did so, though those sources acknowledge they underestimated the extent of the backlash from voters.