AN SNP MP has warned his party not to argue Labour and the Tories are the same days after Humza Yousaf described them as a replica of each other.

Stewart McDonald, who served as defence spokesman in the Commons before resigning after Stephen Flynn was elected Westminster leader, cautioned against the use of “easy soundbites” to attack Sir Keir Starmer's party.

Instead, the Glasgow South MP urged the SNP to focus on a “platform of prosperity, fairness, resilience and independence in Europe” at the next general election.

SNP leader and First Minister Mr Yousaf attacked Labour on Saturday following a speech by Mr Starmer.

READ MORE: Humza Yousaf brands Labour a ‘replica’ of Conservatives

Speaking at the Progressive Britain conference, the Labour leader compared his efforts to reform the party to former prime minister Sir Tony Blair’s symbolic rewriting of Clause Four “on steroids”.

But he has been criticised for comments briefed to the press ahead of the speech, where he said “I don’t care” if he sounded conservative when committing to preserving “precious things in our way of life”.

Tweeting after the speech, Mr Yousaf said: “This week, I accused Labour of being a pale imitation of the Tories, I was wrong, they are a replica.

“Whether it is the blue Tories or red Tories in Number 10, they will continue policies that are harming Scotland. We need independence to protect our people.”

The SNP has ramped up its attacks on Labour in recent months, with former leader Nicola Sturgeon devoting a section of her party conference speech to Mr Starmer's party back in November.

READ MORE: Yousaf defends Sturgeon after criticism by children's commissioner

Both the SNP and Labour have boosted their election messaging in the past few weeks ahead of an expected general election vote next year.

A major poll published this month suggested the SNP is on course to lose multiple seats to Labour with the two parties almost neck-and-neck on Westminster voting intentions.

The survey by Renfield & Wilton, carried out between April 30 and May 2 of almost 1,300 voters in Scotland, found that 35 per cent would vote SNP if a vote was held tomorrow, a drop of 10 per cent from the 2019 general election.

It found that 32 per cent would vote Labour, up from 19 per cent at the last election, with the Conservatives on 18 per cent and Lib Dems nine per cent.

Such a result would see the SNP wiped out across many of the central belt constituencies it turned yellow in 2015.

Mr McDonald, who was named Best Scot at Westminster in the Herald's Politician of the Year awards in November last year, went on to say the SNP would only win the next election if it is able to “answer the economic, social and global insecurities reaching into every community”.

Responding to a political commentator on Twitter, the Glasgow South MP said: “We must critique Labour, of course, but after the disaster years of Boris and weeks of Truss, telling people Lab & Con are the same won’t get us far.

“We must show we can answer the economic, social and global insecurities reaching into every community.

“And goodness, there is much to critique Labour on, and offer a strong alternative to, but we’ll only win if we can credibly answer the three common insecurities mentioned above, as part of an unashamedly pro-independence and EU platform. IMO (in my opinion) that’s where the winning coalition is.”

He added: “If we retreat to the comfort zone and the easy slogans, we’ll lose.
“We can absolutely take this lot on, but only if (we) get it right. Let’s win on a platform of prosperity, fairness, resilience and independence in Europe.

“No matter how easy Labour might sometimes make it for us, we should resist easy soundbites and answers when the problems people are facing are complex.

“Let us engage in solving those problems and offering a real alternative to broken Westminster governance.”