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Richard Leonard was last night under pressure from his own shadow cabinet to back MSPs’ right to decide on a second independence referendum.

The Scottish Labour leader has reacted to SNP demands for a new poll next year by insisting a mandate would only be achieved following a nationalist victory in the 2021 Holyrood election.

But a number of senior figures yesterday came out in favour of a policy change after the party was left with just one MP north of the Border.

Shadow health secretary Monica Lennon has stressed she was still opposed to the SNP’s independence plans.

But she said: “People in Scotland have voted in very large numbers for the SNP, including many Labour voters.

“As expected, Nicola Sturgeon is presenting that as an endorsement of her party and will now ask the UK Government to permit a second referendum on independence.

“If Boris Johnson isn’t prepared to grant this request, he should allow the Scottish Parliament to decide.

“The SNP blueprint for independence is flawed and will disappoint many progressive Scots who are fed up with austerity. Nevertheless, the future of Scotland must be decided by the people of Scotland.

“We must look forward as a party and a movement and respond to the challenges that a post-Brexit

landscape will bring.”

(Image: SCOTTISH DAILY RECORD)

Meanwhile, Alison Evison, president of COSLA and leader of the Labour group on Aberdeenshire Council, came out in support of a future Scottish independence referendum.

In a post on Twitter, she said democracy must be “at the core of all we do”.

She said: “Recently, it has become fragile and we must strengthen it again.

“We can strengthen it by enabling the voice of Scotland to be heard through its formal processes and that must mean a referendum on independence.”

The MSP added: “If the people accept a new prospectus for independence, then so be it. That is democracy and, if it happens, Labour should offer its own prospectus for a progressive, socialist, outward-looking and egalitarian independent country.”

Former Scottish Labour minister Malcolm Chisholm tweeted: “Hope many of those against or undecided

(me included) about independence will get behind incontrovertible democratic demand for IndyRef2.

“Hardest of hard Brexits and intolerable Johnson not what many No Voters had in mind in 2014.”

But Leonard has so far refused to change his position. He said: “The precedent of 2011 into 2014 was you win a successful election at Holyrood because the request lies in the hands of the Scottish Parliament.

"So our argument has been the mandate for a request would be dependent on the outcome of a future Scottish Parliament election.

“There is an agitation for a referendum next year and we will have discussions about that but the view that we have taken up to now is that we wouldn’t support a request for an early referendum.”

Ian Murray is now Scotland’s only Labour MP after the party won just

18.5 per cent of the votes in Scotland – down 8.5 points from the last election.

Shadow Scottish secretary Lesley Laird lost her seat to Neale Hanvey, who was suspended by the SNP for posting anti-Semitic comments on social media.

She was among officials to attend an emergency meeting of Labour’s Scottish Executive Committee in Glasgow yesterday.

Asked whether UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn should quit immediately, she said: “Everybody’s always raw after events like this and I think making decisions on knee-jerk reactions is not the right thing to do.”

Corbyn has said he would not contest another election as leader but he would not “walk away” until a successor is elected.

The Labour Party’s manifesto said it would refuse a request to hold another referendum on Scottish independence in the “early years” of government if it had won the election.

On whether Scottish Labour should change this position, Laird added:

“Constitutional politics north or south of the Border doesn’t serve the Labour Party well and we need to be careful not to be seen to be as popularist as everybody else.”

(Image: Getty Images)

John McDonnell, meanwhile, has confirmed he will not be part of Labour’s next shadow cabinet following the party’s crushing defeat. The shadow chancellor, who played a prominent role in the election campaign, said “I’ve done my bit” and suggested a big reshuffle of Labour’s front-bench team will now take place.

McDonnell added that while “Jeremy was the right leader”, it was time for the party to “move on” under new leadership.

He is expected to stay in place until a new leader and new front-bench team is formed.

The election saw Labour swept aside by the Conservatives in its Midlands heartlands, north Wales and north-eastern England, with Corbyn’s party securing the fewest number of seats since 1935.

McDonnell, who retained the Hayes and Harlington seat he has held since 1997 in Thursday’s election, added that Corbyn had been “demonised by a smear campaign against him” conducted by the media.

Positioning in the race to become the next Labour leader has already started, with ardent Remainer David Lammy having confirmed he is considering putting his name forward.

Others being touted to take over include Lisa Nandy, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Angela Rayner, Keir Starmer, Jess Phillips and Emily Thornberry. McDonnell has named shadow business secretary Long-Bailey, shadow education secretary Rayner and shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon as part of a “new generation” who could be expected to take leading positions.

He added: “In those seats we have lost, it is about listening to people.

“I think it wasn’t just Brexit – I think a long history of maybe 40 years of neglect and them saying to politicians, ‘You never listen to us and you have allowed our

community to be run down in this way’.

“I am hoping that will enable us to construct a programme to address those issues but it has got to be from the grassroots and community upwards.”