ALEX Rowley has said he has never “considered himself a Unionist” as he called upon his party to ditch its pro-Union stance and advocate Scottish home rule.

The deputy Scottish Labour leader said the existing constitutional arrangement dominated by Westminster could not deliver the social and economic change he wished to see.

His stance appears to put him at odds with leader Kezia Dugdale, who earlier this year declared her strength of support for the Union. “I was proud to vote No, I would vote No again," she said. "There’s absolutely no question of my credibility on the issue of the Union."

But interviewed by yesterday’s Sunday Herald, Rowley said: “I have been a member of the Labour Party since I was in my teens, more than 30 years, and I have never considered myself a Unionist, and yet Scottish politics has, since the independence referendum, been increasingly defined in terms of these narrow ideologies of Nationalism and Unionism.”

Rowley said his party’s support for Unionism meant many pro-independence Scots now associated Labour with the Tories and it needed to take an alternative stance.

He said: “Of course we cannot duck the constitutional question, we must set out a clear vision for Scotland in the 21st century ... What Labour must do now is set out its vision of a post-Brexit Scotland which will include home rule within a confederal United Kingdom.”

His intervention highlights unease among Labour and the Liberal Democrats at the hardline support for the Union demonstrated by the parties when they joined forces with the Tories in the Better Together campaign to oppose independence in September 2014.

Both parties saw their vote collapse in the General Election that followed, with each managing to return only a single MP. In the Holyrood election in May this year Labour was pushed into third place behind the Tories, while the Greens overtook the LibDems.

Former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish is another senior figure who has emphasised the need for Labour to take a new approach.

Writing in The National earlier this month, he called for a written constitution to strengthen the authority of the Scottish Parliament following the EU referendum result in which Scots voted by 62 per cent to remain, while the UK overall voted to leave.

“There are powerful ethical, constitutional and political arguments against Westminster being able to force Scotland ... out of the EU despite the democratic wishes of the people in both nations,” he said.

“Regardless of Scotland’s destiny – independence, federalism or home rule – a constitution for Scotland is now a priority, whose formation should no longer be delayed. A new constitutional convention should get to work as soon as possible....Scotland should no longer tolerate the ramshackle reality of an unwritten constitution. This is 2016 not 1716.”

A call for the LibDems to explore “all options” for Scotland in the wake of the Brexit vote came before the party’s autumn conference in Dunfermline on Saturday.

It was ultimately rejected, with activists backing an amended motion making clear they should “explore all options, except independence, that may allow Scotland to retain the benefits of EU membership”.

Stephen Gethins, the SNP’s Europe spokesman, last night welcomed Rowley’s intervention.

“Brexit is by far and away the biggest threat to Scotland’s jobs, economy and long-term prosperity, and it is absolutely right that we consider all possible options to protect ourselves from that,” he said.

He added: “There is clear discomfort in the rank and file-of-both Labour and the LibDems about maintaining a hardline Unionist position. Both Scottish Labour and the Scottish LibDems have suffered electoral annihilation over the last few years – yet their leaders seem unable or unwilling to recognise why that has happened.

“So long as Labour and the Lib Dems continue to give the Tories carte blanche to do whatever they want to Scotland, their parties will be rejected at the ballot box.”