KEIR Starmer has been branded "out of touch" after a poll revealed 60% of UK Labour members back indyref2.

The YouGov study, which spoke to 1073 Labour members between March 17 and March 24, found that while supporters in the rest of the UK believe there should be another vote, just 31% in Scotland feel the same – with 61% against the idea and 8% undecided.

However, the weighted sample in Scotland for the poll was just 43 people.

Thirty per cent of UK-wide respondents do not back another referendum, while 10% said they do not know.

Most support for another referendum within Labour is in older age groups, with 63% of 50-64-year-olds and 64% of those older than 65 supporting a second vote, compared to 52% in both the 18-24 and 25-49 age groups.

Supporters also appear to break with the messaging from the leadership of the party, which has been steadfastly against another referendum.

READ MORE: Why Labour's weakness in London may be good for the pro-independence movement

The poll found 56% believe the party should publicly back another vote, while 28% said it should not and 16% are undecided.

The disparity in the party north of the border continued with that question, as just 28% of Scottish Labour members believe the party should support another referendum, compared to 53% who do not and 19% who are undecided.

The poll comes ahead of Starmer's visit to Scotland today.

SNP Depute Leader Keith Brown said Labour have "ruined [their] reputation in Scotland".

He added:“Keir Starmer is completely out of touch with Scotland and his own party members, who overwhelmingly support Scotland’s right to choose our own future in a post-pandemic independence referendum.

“The Labour Party ruined its reputation in Scotland by backing Boris Johnson’s hard Brexit, supporting austerity cuts, imposing Trident nuclear weapons, and working hand-in-hand with the Tories in Better Together.

"It risks falling into terminal decline if it continues to side with Boris Johnson to deny democracy.

“As Keir Starmer visits Scotland today he must explain why he is woefully failing to provide any real opposition to Boris Johnson, why he won’t speak out against Tory austerity cuts, why he wants to waste £200 billion imposing nuclear weapons, and why he has turned Labour into a hard Brexit party – ruling out a return to the EU and voting for a hard Brexit, which has already cost Scotland’s economy billions of pounds."

Scottish leader Anas Sarwar has said the next parliamentary session at Holyrood should focus on the recovery from Covid-19.

But Brown said: “The Labour Party cannot credibly talk about securing the recovery when they have imposed a hard Brexit against Scotland’s will – destroying jobs, damaging businesses and costing our economy a fortune in long-term harm."

Labour are polling third behind the second-placed Tories and first-placed SNP in voting intention for the May 6 Scottish Parliament election, and last week former Labour first minister Henry McLeish called on Sarwar’s team to “drop its blanket opposition to another referendum”, warning: “It will happen some time.”

READ MORE: SNP pile pressure on Anas Sarwar to back indyref2 ahead of leaders' debate

McLeish, who led the then Scottish Executive from October 2000 to November 2001, said: “Merely ­saying no to a second independence referendum has never been a ­vote winner.

“It sounds negative, is ­interpreted as a denial of democracy and smacks of political panic.”

That move came after Sarwar sacked Glasgow Kelvin candidate Hollie Cameron over her support for another independence referendum.

Cameron told the Sunday National her party “respects” the right to a new constitutional vote, saying “there are different opinions in the Labour Party”.

Her removal sparked fierce condemnation from local activists and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell who called the row “another example of what Labour Party members from across the country are becoming increasingly anxious about – the flame of internal party democracy being slowly but systematically extinguished”.