Scottish Labour ready to add to ‘remarkable gains’ if second election called

Scottish Labour will remain on “election footing'' throughout the summer, with the party eyeing more gains from the SNP if there is a second general election this year.

James Kelly, Scottish Labour's election campaign manager, said the party made “remarkable gains'' last week - and he pointed to a handful of seats where it was within 400 votes of winning.

Labour won back Glasgow North East from the SNP two years after Nicola Sturgeon's party swept the board and claimed all the seats in the city, and it was within 60 votes of taking Glasgow South West and 75 votes of winning Glasgow East.

In Airdrie and Shotts, the SNP's majority over Labour was slashed to 195, while in Motherwell and Wishaw, Lanark and Hamilton East, and Inverclyde, the nationalists now have majorities of less than 400.

With Theresa May having lost her majority at Westminster and her Tories being forced to seek a deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, Labour says it is prepared for another election.

After the SNP lost 21 seats to the Tories, Labour and the Liberal Democrats, Mr Kelly also said the First Minister should ditch plans for a second independence referendum and “get back to the day job''.

He said: “Scottish Labour made remarkable gains across Scotland last week.

“Voters across the country turned out to send Nicola Sturgeon a message that Scotland doesn't want a divisive second independence referendum. She should now get back to the day job of running our schools and hospitals.''

Mr Kelly said Scots who had voted Labour had backed “a positive vision for the whole of the UK and stopped Theresa May getting a majority''.

He continued: “In six seats, Labour is fewer than 400 votes behind the SNP, while many others are also in play.

“With SNP majorities slashed, Scottish Labour is in a position to make more gains and we will remain on an election footing for another vote over the summer.''