A SENIOR Scottish Labour MSP has urged delegates attending the party's conference to back calls for a debate on Trident.

Neil Findlay said the renewal of Britain's nuclear deterrent was "too important an issue to duck".

He issued the plea on the eve of Scottish Labour's conference in Perth.

Delegates will vote on Friday on whether to include a debate on Trident in the "members' day" agenda on Sunday.

Earlier this week, the powerful GMB union urged Labour members to reject a possible motion opposing Trident renewal.

Acting Secretary Gary Smith said scrapping the missile system would cost thousands of highly skilled defence jobs.

Claims they could be replaced as part of a diversification industrial strategy were "pie in the sky," he added.

But Mr Findlay, who ran Jeremy Corbyn's leadership campaign, said: "This is a vital issue and we can’t take a head in the sand approach to here.

"It’s important for the party and the country that we put Trident renewal on the agenda."

In a conference newsletter published by the left-wing Campaign for Socialism grouping, he wrote: "If we shy away from discussing Trident renewal we can be sure that others won't – or be slow in pointing out our reluctance to do so.

"Nye Bevan famously talked about sending a foreign secretary naked into the conference chamber.

"Renewing Trident is the emperor’s new clothes – it’s a threadbare illusion of great power status that we hope no one will ever call up us to use."

Responding to the GMB, he added: "If we accept the ‘Trident means jobs’ argument then it means that we can see no other role in our economy for some of our most highly skilled workers and technicians.

"That doesn’t sound like the sort of economy we want, or be prepared to settle for.

"Instead we could be using the workforce, with their immensely valuable skills base, in developing new technologies for the 21st century."

Insiders believe the Scots party will have the debate and vote against Trident renewal.

Two other trade unions, Unite and Unison, are set to oppose Trident provided a jobs strategy is put in place, it is understood.

In a sign of strong grassroots feeling on the issue, eight constituency Labour parties have submitted motions calling for Trident to be scrapped.

However, some figures in the party have made behind-the-scenes efforts to discourage the debate.

The UK Government is set to approve a new generation of nuclear-armed submarines next year.

If Scottish Labour comes out against the move, it will put the party at odds with UK Labour, which remains in favour of the deterrent having sidestepped a debate at its conference in Bournemouth last month.

However, it could support the staunchly anti-Trident Mr Corbyn's efforts to reverse party policy.

The vote would also be an early test of plans to make Scottish Labour a fully autonomous arm of UK Labour.

The plan has been agreed by Mr Corbyn and Scots party leader Kezia Dugdale, though mechanisms have not yet been devised to deal with policy differences north and south of the Border and how they should be presented to voters.

Mr Corbyn will address delegates on Friday and Ms Dugdale makes her keynote speech on Saturday.

The conference will also hear from Tom Watson, the deputy leader of UK Labour, shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray, Grahame Smith, general secretary of the STUC and Andrew Little, leader of the New Zealand Labour Party.

Other debates, including one on the future of Scotland's public services, will form part of Scottish Labour's policy-making process ahead of next May's Holyrood election.