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Richard Leonard has vowed Labour would not form a pact with the SNP or back a second independence referendum under his leadership.

The MSP and former trade union official also vowed to introduce tough rent controls, a workers’ right to buy their companies and nationalise failing public services such as ScotRail and Royal Mail if elected First Minister.

Launching his leadership bid at City of Glasgow College yesterday, he promised that Labour would “rediscover our ethical socialist roots”.

Leonard, a former GMB union organiser who was elected to Holyrood in 2016, is competing against fellow MSP Anas Sarwar to become Kezia Dugdale’s successor.

(Image: Getty)

Dugdale dramatically quit the post last month after just two years in charge.

She said last year it was “not inconceivable” she could back Scottish independence if it was the only way to ensure the country stayed in the EU. She was thanked for her tireless service by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

And on Friday, Labour MEP David Martin called for groundwork to be laid for a possible coalition with the SNP at Holyrood.

But Leonard said: “For the avoidance of doubt, let me make it clear – there will be no ground ceded to nationalism at the expense of progressive socialism under my leadership.

“No coalition, pacts, or deals with the SNP. And no second independence referendum.”

The Central Scotland MSP claimed there had been a “decade of complacency” and a widening gap between the rich and poor under the SNP government.

(Image: Daily Record)

Leonard, seen as the left-wing candidate, said: “History shows that it has always been Labour in power, backed and supported by our wider movement, that has transformed Scotland before.

“And that’s why the only coalition I want to see is the one between the Labour Party and the trades union movement.”

Leonard vowed to take forward an industrial strategy which considers public ownership of ScotRail, Royal Mail, renewable energy and oil and gas.

He also pledged to bring forward rent controls to prevent tenants being exploited.

He said it would be called a “Mary Barbour law”, named after the leader of the Glasgow rent strikes in the 1930s.

Other policies include giving workers the right to buy their companies when they were up for sale or facing closure, and a review of controversial private finance deals for public projects.

He said: “Why shouldn’t those who create the wealth have a right to own the wealth they create?

“And I will commit to an urgent and comprehensive review of how we fund our public projects and infrastructure so that no longer does it provide a cash bonanza to absentee shareholders. Our public services are there to serve the Scottish public, not the balance sheets of financiers.”

(Image: PA)

Meanwhile, Anas Sarwar launched his Scottish Labour leadership campaign on Friday evening. He said he was “parking his tank” in the heart of Nicola Sturgeon’s constituency to highlight years of failure by the SNP in tackling poverty.

Sarwar said that the SNP had presided over £400million of cuts to Glasgow and that it was a “national disgrace” half the children in Sturgeon’s constituency were deprived.

He said he would pursue policies to end austerity, end the gender pay gap and lift children out of poverty, and launch “an action plan to rescue our NHS”.

SNP MSP James Dornan described the leadership contest as the “least inspiring choice in the history of devolution”.