RICHARD Leonard was last night forced to apologise after he was accused by his predecessor of “censoring” a Brexit-related report to Scottish Labour’s conference.

Kezia Dugdale formally complained after the party leader north of the Border ordered the removal of a statement about support for a People’s Vote from the conference guide without the author’s permission.

Dugdale said she was “shocked” that a passage by former Scottish Labour MEP Catherine Stihler, describing Brexit as a “tragedy” and backing a second EU referendum, was replaced.

The original passage of the report Stihler co-authored with fellow MEP David Martin read: “Brexit is a tragedy for our country and for the workers and communities the Labour Party represents. That’s why David and Catherine fully support a People’s Vote with the option to remain in the EU.”

However this was changed to: “The complete mess the Tories have made of Brexit means they are putting Scottish people’s jobs and our industries at risk. Labour will always put them first.”

Dugdale, above, wrote: “When that was challenged, she [Stihler] was told it was on your direction and that you had the final say on what was printed.”

Dugdale’s comments were reportedly backed by the Labour MSP Jenny Marra as well as other MSPs in the party. In a bid to ease tensions, Leonard sent a written apology to Stihler and Martin.

A Scottish Labour source: “This was a genuine misunderstanding and Richard has written to Catherine and David to apologise.”

The row broke out two days before the start of the party’s spring conference in Dundee which is due to be addressed by UK leader Jeremy Corbyn tomorrow. It also comes after an attack on Leonard by Gary Smith, the head of his own union, the GMB, which helped fund his leadership bid. Smith also criticised the party’s Brexit policy.

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Asked by the Herald on Sunday, if he was surprised Labour was in third place int he polls, Smith said: “No ... they have nothing coherent or clear to say on the big issue of the day.”

Leonard said last week that he would rather see a Labour Brexit than a People’s Vote, despite 62% of Scots backing Remain in the EU referendum and 72% of Labour members in the UK supporting a second EU vote.

In a leaked email to her successor, Dugdale said: “I find it wholly inappropriate and I can’t possibly understand why you would seek to censor [Stihler’s] final words to party members, especially as she states what is party policy and has been since last September.”

Dugdale, who stood down as Scottish Labour leader after two years in 2017, circulated her email to all Labour MSPs and MPs to make her anger widely known to colleagues. She also expressed discontent with Labour’s general position on backing Brexit. She wrote: “You know that I’ve found the party’s position on Brexit and a second EU referendum disappointing for sometime.

“As I said at [the Labour MSP] group last week and repeatedly over the past few months, I don’t believe there is such a thing as a good Brexit or indeed a ‘jobs first Brexit’.

I remain utterly convinced, rooted in all the evidence I have seen, that it will be immensely damaging for the Scottish and UK economy.

“A price which will once again be paid by those in low-paid and insecure work, the very people we seek to represent.”

SNP MSP George Adam said: “This is an eye-opening revelation from Scottish Labour. In a considerable insult to Scottish workers, Richard Leonard is trying to airbrush out the reality of a damaging Tory Brexit with only 23 days remaining until we leave the EU.”