A SCOTTISH Labour group which backs independence has relaunched after being “inundated” with enquiries from party members following the party’s disastrous general election results.

Labour for Independence (LFI), which was set up ahead of the 2014 referendum, held a meeting earlier this month to discuss how to grow the organisation and persuade others to back independence.

Scott Abel, national organiser of LFI, said they had received “hundreds” of emails every day from Labour members following December’s dire election performance, with Ian Murray left as the party’s sole Scottish MP.

He said: “After the election, there were people really dissatisfied with Scottish Labour.

“It was the same old rhetoric about increased devolution and full fiscal autonomy – all of which we had last time. People have now seen through that.”

He added: “We are not asking for the Labour party to come out and favour independence.

“It is never going to work for Scottish Labour to come out on the yes or no side.

“They need to let MSPs and MPs decide whatever way they want to go. That is the only way it will work.”

The LFI group last launched a major recruitment drive in early 2017 following the Brexit vote.

Abel said there had also subsequently been an influx of enquiries after the EU elections in May 2019, in which Labour lost both of its MEPs in Scotland.

But he said after the general election it had gone “crazy” with hundreds of emails a day, including from England as well as Scotland.

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He said there were now around 350 confirmed Labour party members of LFI.

He added: “It is not much, but when we look at the membership in Scottish Labour it is quite a lot.

“Every single day we are getting emails - without a doubt at least between one and five emails from people.

“We are looking at how we organise as so many people have come into the group.”

He said discussions at the meeting last month centred around issues such as organising within constituency Labour parties (CLPs).

“We have people in every CLP now, without a doubt,” he said.

“For me LFI at the moment is purely about working within the Labour party.

“We won’t be out there trying to convince Labour party voters yet until we are organised.

“Our message is we need independence – we need a referendum.

“We see it as our job as Labour party members to convince other people within the Labour party.”

In 2013, LFI was accused of a being a “sham” and an SNP “front” after SNP members were pictured in front of an LFI banner.

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Abel dismissed the claim as a “lie”, saying the image had been taken at a Yes stall with representatives from various parties present.

He said: “It just so happened someone snapped a photo when we were putting a banner up.

“I think if something like that happened now, we wouldn’t care – in fact we don’t care.

“We are going to be creating leaflets and if Yes people want to hand out our leaflets we are more than happy if they want to do it.”

On the divisions in Scottish Labour over its stance on indyref2, Abel said the party was “tying itself in knots”.

He said: “They need to back another referendum. If they don’t, the 2021 election is going to be way worse than anything they have seen before.”