KEZIA Dugdale has repeatedly flip-flopped on independence and must take a “lot of responsibility” for Scottish Labour election defeats, according to a former party MSP.

Michael McMahon said Dugdale had to “get her act together” and stop playing into the hands of the SNP and the Tories by “prevaricating” on the constitution.

Asked what his advice was for his leader, he said: “Firm up. Start again.”

Scottish Labour suffered another drubbing at the ballot box last week after losing over 100 councillors in the local government elections.

The result mirrored last year’s Holyrood poll when Scottish Labour slumped to third place behind the Tories.

A key factor in the Tories' historic turnaround is believed to be leader Ruth Davidson’s strong stance against independence and a second referendum, which critics say Dugdale has failed to match.

In an interview before the Scottish Parliament election last year Dugdale famously said it was “not inconceivable” she could back independence if it secured Scotland’s place in the European Union. She later said that her own MSPs would be free to campaign for independence in the event of a second plebiscite.

McMahon, who was an MSP in Lanarkshire between 1999 and 2016, said of the council results last week: “Kezia has got to take a lot of responsibility for this. We are in a binary constitutional political set up and we don’t talk that type of language, and yet she has played into the hands of both the Tories and the SNP repeatedly by prevaricating and flip-flopping on Labour’s position on the constitution.”

On her previous comments about independence, he said: “That falls entirely on her, because she is the leader, she is the person who is saying this back and forward. Trying to say on the one hand that she doesn’t agree with independence, but then saying that she would consider independence. And then saying ‘I wouldn’t really support it, but I don’t mind other people who do’.”

Asked whether Dugdale had opened the door for Davidson, he said: “She certainly gave Ruth the opportunity to do what she has done.”

He continued: “Kez has to get her act together. She is young enough to have made mistakes but she can recover from it, if she just starts to focus on what is required to get a Labour message out, because she is all over the place. She needs to firm up [on] where she stands on things and speak clearly about the advantages of being a part of Britain without flag waving.”

He added: “You are looking for clarity in a binary system. You are not going to look for it [from] someone who changes their position from one month to the next, or depending on the last person she spoke to.”

McMahon, who did not support Dugdale during the 2015 Scottish Labour leadership contest, also accused of her being “all over the place” on UK leader Jeremy Corbyn:

“She comes out and makes it absolutely clear she doesn’t think Jeremy Corbyn’s a good leader…...and then she puts out messages about how she enjoys working with Jeremy Corbyn and wants to campaign along side him on Labour values. Again, make your mind up. It’s on almost every subject. She is for something, but she is not exactly for it.”

The former MSP, who is on the moderate wing of the party, said he was not calling on Dugdale to quit and said he hoped she could turn around Scottish Labour: “I think she is capable of doing that.”

Glasgow Tory MSP Annie Wells added: "Michael McMahon is absolutely right. On everything from Jeremy Corbyn's leadership to the Union, nobody has a clue where Kezia Dugdale stands. That's why thousands of people who used to vote Labour have now decided to vote for Ruth Davidson's Scottish Conservatives."

A Scottish Labour spokesman said: "Kez couldn't be clearer in her opposition to a divisive second independence referendum. The Labour Party she leads will never support independence because of the turbo-charged austerity it would cause for working families.

"The only way to send Nicola Sturgeon a message to drop her plans for an unwanted referendum is to vote Labour on June 8."