JESS Phillips, one of five contenders for the Labour leadership, has insisted if she became her party’s leader it would be “100 per cent committed to the Union”.
The Birmingham MP, who is due to campaign in Glasgow today, said the SNP’s “abject failings” on health and education were a "threat to opportunity and equality" for working people in Scotland.
Her comments came as fellow contender Lisa Nandy, in a speech in east London launching her bid for the Labour crown, suggested that if she won, she would create an "international commission" to reverse the party's falling fortunes in Scotland, where it now has only one MP.
"Now is the time to look outwards, paint with broad strokes and set up an international commission, led by and for Scottish people, that seeks to learn from a few examples where at times in modern history the cause of social justice has beaten divisive Nationalism.”
READ MORE: Labour leadership: Emily Thornberry edges over line as Clive Lewis pulls out of race
The former Shadow Energy Secretary, who secured 30 nominations, argued a "red bridge" uniting support across different wings and regions must be built to prevent Labour’s demise.
Five candidates succeeded in securing the necessary 22 nominations from MPs and MEPs although it took to the last few minutes for Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, to scrape over the line thanks to a couple of colleagues backing her just before the deadline closed.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Shadow Brexit Secretary, secured the most nominations at 86; the bookies now make him the favourite to succeed Jeremy Corbyn. Rebecca Long-Bailey, the Shadow Business Secretary, regarded by some as the “continuity candidate,” secured 33.
Ms Phillips, who received 23 nominations, declared: “The idea that the answer to the UK leaving a union with our most important trading partner is for Scotland to leave a union with her most important trading partner only makes sense if you're a Nationalist."
The backbencher argued Labour believed in the Union because it believed in redistribution.
“We want to bring people together, not divide them, and because our compassion doesn't end at an imaginary line on a map. Let Nationalists make the case for Nationalism; we should make the argument for solidarity and internationalism," she added.
A spokeswoman for the SNP dismissed Ms Phillips’s intervention as “ill-informed” and “arrogant”.
She said: “It's disappointing Jess Phillips would deny the people of Scotland their right to basic democracy and would rather we remain shackled to a chaotic, dysfunctional and increasingly right-wing Tory Government.”
Meanwhile, in the deputy leadership race, five candidates also secured enough nominations to proceed to the next stage: Angela Rayner, the Shadow Education Secretary, received 85; Ian Murray, the party’s only Scottish MP, got 34; Dawn Butler, the Shadow Women’s and Equalities Secretary, 28; Dr Rosena Allin Khan, 23, and Richard Burgon, the Shadow Justice Secretary, 22.
All the candidates now need to get the nominations of 33 local constituency parties or three Labour affiliates, including at least two trade unions, to enter the final postal ballot phase of party members and registered supporters. The winners will be announced at a special conference on April 4.
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