Richard Leonard rules out Labour support for second Scottish independence referendum

Labour's next UK manifesto will commit the party to oppose a second Scottish independence referendum, Richard Leonard has said.

The party's Scottish leader was forced to come out against indyref2 after Jeremy Corbyn suggested Labour could grant the powers to hold another referendum if he was Prime Minister.

"We want to be absolutely clear to the people of Scotland that there is no case for a second independence referendum. We just had a referendum in 2014," Mr Leonard told the BBC on Sunday morning.

In a speech to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Monday, the Scottish leader is expected to add: "We don't need a referendum, we need the election of a Scottish Labour government which is prepared to use its powers, and a confident Labour Party reawakening hope out of despair across these shared islands."

In an interview earlier this week, Mr Corbyn said he would "decide at the time" what his response would be if the Scottish Government made a formal request for the power to hold another independence referendum under Section 30 of the Scotland Act.

The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford posted on Twitter: "Richard Leonard wrongly states there is no case for independence referendum, completely ignoring that there is a mandate for a referendum from the Scottish people who returned a [independence-supporting] majority of MSPs to the Scottish Parliament. Time to accept reality".