LABOUR would spend months negotiating a fresh Brexit deal with the European Union only to tell voters not to back it, the party’s shadow Scottish minister has said.

Paul Sweeney said Labour would campaign for Remain in any snap election, but would also attempt to reach a fresh agreement with Brussels to give voters a choice.

Critics described the position as nonsense and accused the party of “fiddling while Rome burns”.

However, Mr Sweeney insisted it was incumbent on Labour to offer voters a credible Leave option in any future referendum.

Speaking on the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme, he said: “There’s several things we need to do to get there: win a no-confidence motion [in Boris Johnson], trigger a general election, form the Government and then there would be a situation where we would seek to renegotiate a deal along Labour’s lines, and then not necessarily own that deal.

“We would say we’re still backing Remain as a party. We are giving that option to the people to ratify.”

Asked if this meant Labour would put its deal to the people, having spent months negotiating it, only to tell people not to vote for it, Mr Sweeney said: “Yeah.”

The Glasgow North East MP added: “We actually need to go through this as a country and bring people together. It’s a highly split situation; the country is highly divided on it.

“Simple binary solutions aren’t going to be the way forward. So we have to, as a country, try and have a programme of assemblies, of citizens’ assemblies, and a process of trying to come together.

“There will be an effort to try and negotiate some sort of deal with the European Union, and say to people, ‘There’s a deal that’s negotiated. That’s the only credible version of Brexit that’s on offer. Ratify that deal or no deal.’

“And if it’s rejected by the people, by default we remain as a member state of the European Union.

“And on balance, Labour would always say we wish to remain a member state of the European Union.

“It’s not that difficult to see how that logic works.”

Theresa May's Brexit deal was rejected by MPs three times, and Brussels has repeatedly ruled out reopening negotiations.

SNP MSP Tom Arthur said: “This sort of fiddling while Rome burns explains exactly why Labour are an irrelevance, polling in single figures in Scotland.

“The SNP is the only party capable of standing up to the Tories and which has a clear plan to stop Brexit.”