LABOUR is being reborn in Scotland, Jeremy Corbyn has claimed, as thousands more members join the party following his leadership victory.

As Labour’s conference got under way in Brighton, the new UK party leader also insisted that defending the Union was about class politics as he derided Scottish Nationalism, declaring: “Flags don’t build houses.”

Mr Corbyn, who will be in Glasgow on Thursday and again next week for the party’s annual fundraising gala dinner, made clear much of his leadership would be aimed at rebuilding Labour in Scotland, saying: “I’m going to be in Scotland a great deal as leader of the party.”

He is also expected to speak at the Scottish Labour conference in Perth next month.

At Scots Night, Mr Corbyn promised cheering delegates that he would be campaigning hard in Scotland between now and the Holyrood elections next May.

The Labour leader said: "We will be campaigning in Scotland at least one day every month all the way through. We will be going to all parts of Scotland.

"Because we want to carry a message that the austerity this Tory government have chosen for the people of this country is brutal, it is wrong, it is impoverishing the poor in our society, it's a strategy that enriches the richest within our society."

He also said that he wanted to promote the "amazing sense of hope and optimism" seen during the leadership election campaign.

The London MP made clear that if there were a second independence referendum before 2020, then he would “not be standing alongside David Cameron” but Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, who would take her own approach to another poll.

He said: “Above all, this is the growth and rebirth of Scottish Labour. Membership has gone up incredibly in Scotland in the past few weeks, during the leadership campaign and since the leadership campaign.”

While party sources could not give precise numbers, they did make clear the rise was in the thousands.

Mr Corbyn told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “Listen, if you’re poor in Glasgow and you’re poor in Birmingham, you’re poor. If you need a house in Glasgow and you need a house in London, you need a house. And so there is the class politics issue of it; that’s the message I’m taking when I’m campaigning in Scotland just as it is when I’m campaigning anywhere else.”

Mr Corbyn then declared: “Flags don’t build houses.”

The Labour leader also suggested the SNP’s commitment to anti-austerity was superficial.

“Yes, the SNP have a headline in that they’re opposed to austerity, fine. The SNP are also privatising Calmac, also were behind the privatisation of Scot Rail, are also cutting college places, also privatising services, cutting local government funding.

“Yes, they have an austerity badge but where’s the economic strategy behind (it), which doesn’t either continue the austerity that’s happening now or if they go for fiscal devolution, it’s going to be even worse in Scotland because of the price of oil at the present time.”

Stewart Hosie, the deputy SNP leader, dismissed Mr Corbyn’s remarks as "the same old lines we have heard for years".

In her conference address, Ms Dugdale – having once given the impression that she had doubts about Mr Corbyn as leader – told the conference he was a “man of principles and conviction”, whom she would be working alongside to change the Labour party.

She made clear Scottish Labour was now ready to take on a tired SNP administration more interested in a second referendum than governing in the interests of Scotland.

Insisting Labour had to break its losing streak at the forthcoming Holyrood elections in May, she told conference: "Scotland needs a strong Labour Party and a strong opposition to the Scottish Government.

"Because for eight years, the SNP Government have had the chance to change our schools, change our hospitals, change our country for the better. But the truth is they haven't."

The Lothians MSP argued that because the SNP Government wanted to carry on the constitutional argument, it was presiding over falling standards in schools and hospitals.

“It means difficult decisions delayed, progressive choices dismissed and, tragically, a lack of political will to use the powers we have in the Scottish Parliament," she said.

In his speech, Ian Murray joked he was the "last man standing" as Labour's last Scottish MP in Westminster.

The Shadow Scottish Secretary promised to push for further devolution in the Scotland Bill, telling conference: "We need the Tories to stay true to the spirit and letter of the Smith Agreement...This Bill should herald a new era for the Scottish Parliament."

In response, MSP Linda Fabiani for the SNP dismissed Ms Dugdale's speech as “indicative of a party that is all out of ideas”.