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Alistair Darling has warned the Scottish Labour Party against veering towards the left after the election of Jeremy Corbyn as UK party leader.

The former chancellor dismissed suggestions that Mr Corbyn's leadership would be the key to the recovery of the party's fortunes in Scotland.

He said Labour's position in opinion polls in Scotland was "recoverable".

But he urged Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale not to move away from the centre ground of politics.

Labour lost 40 seats to the SNP at the general election, leaving it with just one MP in Scotland.

Some have speculated that the election of a left wing UK leader would help the party win back voters from the Nationalists.

In an interview with The Herald newspaper, Mr Darling said he believed that was a mistaken view.

He said: "The Nationalists are quintessentially New Labour in their approach. They are parked in the centre ground.

"That's why it would be a huge mistake for the Labour Party to think it should be pitching to the left.

"You cannot win an election in Scotland or the UK unless you take the majority of people with you, which means you do need to take the middle ground with you as well."

He said he was unable at the moment to see a "silver lining" to Mr Corbyn's election, adding that he was "not quite sure what he's for".

Second referendum

Mr Darling, who led the cross-party Better Together campaign during last year's referendum on Scottish independence, also said he did not believe the majority of people in Scotland wanted a second referendum on the issue any time soon.

He said arguing the economic case for independence was now "much more difficult".

"We were told we were scaremongering 12 months ago when we said oil could dip below $113 per barrel. It's less than half that now," he said.

An independent Scotland would face tax rises or spending cuts "that would make George Osborne's austerity look like a Sunday afternoon picnic", he added.