COMMENTS from two Labour leadership contenders on Scottish independence this week show the party has a "Scottish death wish", a senior SNP MP has said.
Pete Wishart, the party's longest-serving SNP representative at Westminster, called out Jess Phillips and Lisa Nandy over their stances.
His colleague Tommy Sheppard branded Nandy "hopelessly out of touch".
This week self-proclaimed "passionate Unionist" Phillips visited Glasgow and appeared on Scotland Tonight denying a second indyref should take place, adding that other Scottish constitutional arrangements like devo-max or federalism were not of interest to voters.
READ MORE: Jess Phillips: Scots 'would not be asking me about devo-max'
And last night Nandy gave more details for her plan on an "international commission" on Scotland, which she said would look for examples of other countries where "the cause of social justice has beaten divisive nationalism".
The Wigan MP told Andrew Neil that in Catalonia, where pro-independence leaders were last year given long-term prison sentences for their role in the 2017 indyref, may provide lessons on beating "divisive nationalism".
Spain has also come under fire for police brutality during the referendum and at protests following it.
It’s as if Labour have a Scottish death wish. @jessphillips wants to deny Scotland its democracy and @lisanandy even proposes Catalan style political prisoners and cracked skulls if we dare to assert it.
— Pete Wishart (@PeteWishart) January 16, 2020
Wishart tweeted: "It's as if Labour have a Scottish death wish.
"@jessphillips wants to deny Scotland its democracy and @lisanandy even proposes Catalan style political prisoners and cracked skulls if we dare to assert it."
Sheppard, the SNP MP for Edinburgh East, said: “There is a running anti-democratic theme dominating the Labour leadership contest and it only confirms why the Labour party is in a state of utter disarray in Westminster, in its Scottish branch office, and why it is hopelessly out of touch with the people of Scotland.
“With Lisa Nandy even lurching so far to the extremes by condoning violence and imprisonment as a way to oppose independence, it suggests there is a deeper problem rotting at the core of the Labour party.
“With the SNP winning more than eighty per cent of seats in Scotland on a mandate to hold an independence referendum, all Labour leadership candidates must make clear whether they respect democracy or if they will instead follow the lead of Tory leader Boris Johnson in denying democracy.
“The people of Scotland must have the choice of a better future than the broken Westminster system being imposed upon us. That is a decision solely for the people of Scotland – not Boris Johnson, not Lisa Nandy, or any other detached Westminster politician.”
Last night Nandy was asked by Neil about what she meant by her "international commission" announcement.
She told him: "You sound really confused by this and I’m surprised because you surely must have been watching as socialists have been beaten over and over again by nationalists and the idea that we have all the answers in the Labour Party – I’m sorry there isn’t a single person who believes that.
READ MORE: Lisa Nandy under fire for Catalonia claim in Andrew Neil interview
"I don’t think there’s anything wrong with saying that rather than turn inwards and argue about resources, we should look outwards to other countries and other parts of the world where they’ve had to deal with divisive nationalism and seek to discover the lessons from when in those brief moments in history in places like Catalonia and Quebec we have managed to go and beat narrow, divisive nationalism with a social justice agenda."
Nandy, who made it into the Labour contest with 31 nominations, added she would not support indyref2 being held.
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