Labour conference: Anas Sarwar takes pop at SNP and Nicola Sturgeon

It was the Scottish Labour leader’s first appearance at the event in his current role and he used his speech to warn delegates that the SNP are “not progressive allies”.

Sarwar went on to claim the politics of Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP are of “division and grievance”.

The SNP hit back after his speech, and said the Scottish Labour party are “doomed to irrelevance” and have “zero relevance”.

READ MORE: 'Rattled' Tory government bans all talk of Scottish independence

Sarwar walked out to the podium in Brighton to Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk – the song playing when he joined a dance class during the May election campaign.

Sarwar stated that Scotland was the “first red wall to fall” and said winning seats here is key to putting a Labour government in Downing Street, adding they need to present a, “different, more positive vision of Scotland and the UK – outward looking, diverse and tolerant”.

However, it didn’t take long for Sarwar to go on the attack against the SNP, and the Tory UK Government.

He said: “Don’t let the nationalists tell you that the political values that drive Scotland are of Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP, of division and grievance. The values that drive our Scotland, my Scotland, are hope, opportunity and solidarity.”

Sarwar made the comments during his speech on Monday

He added: “I also want to caution colleagues across the UK who think somehow the SNP are our progressive allies.

“The SNP are not progressive and they certainly aren’t our allies. Trade unionists in the workplace, workers in our communities, every person in this hall today, we already have a progressive alliance, it’s called the Labour party.

“So let's judge the SNP on their record, attainment gap widening, child poverty growing, waiting times getting longer and the heartbreaking scandal of the highest drug death rate in Europe.

"Now a progressive party would roll up its sleeves and act, but instead what do the SNP do?

“First blame Westminster, then carry on campaigning for the only thing that matters to them, independence.”

SNP MSP Audrey Nicoll (pictured) hit back and said: "The SNP just put its government record to the people of Scotland in the election and won a landslide.

“Labour are doomed to irrelevance for as long as they continue to side with the Tories in denying democracy in Scotland.

“Voters across Scotland, justifiably, have little confidence in anything they say – from their bumbling Brexit position to their denial of the cast-iron mandate for an independence referendum delivered in May’s election.

“They are a party with zero credibility and no answers to the problems facing Scotland, which they would prefer was left under Westminster rule to allow the Tories to continue imposing callous and deeply damaging policies.”

We previously told how Sarwar refused to say whether or not he agreed with Angela Rayner after she called senior Tories "scum".

And, Andy Burnham compared independence with this year's ban on non-essential travel between Scotland and Greater Manchester