LABOUR’S MPs and MSPs are “right behind” Jeremy Corbyn, the party’s only Scottish MP Ian Murray has said.
Mr Murray told a fringe meeting at Scottish Labour’s conference in Perth there has been “no disloyalty” to Mr Corbyn since he won a leadership challenge last year.
He added that voters do not believe the party – which was beaten to third place in this year’s Scottish Parliament elections and trails the Conservatives in UK-wide opinion polls – has a “pathway to power” at Westminster.
The fringe event was aimed at discussing how Labour can win again.
Mr Murray previously quit Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet and opposed his continuation as UK leader.
Although he survived the leadership challenge, Labour’s defeat in the Copeland by-election will add renewed pressure on Mr Corbyn, who was already trailing Theresa May substantially in national opinion polls.
He also faced a recent backbench rebellion when a fifth of Labour MPs defied his three-line whip, voting against legislation granting Mrs May the power to trigger the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Responding to comments from Glasgow councillor Bill Butler that Labour cannot appear to be a “house divided”, Mr Murray said: “This isn’t about a criticism of any leadership.
“In fact the PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party) and the SPLP (Scottish Parliamentary Labour Party) are right behind Kez and Jeremy.
“Since Jeremy was re-elected there has been no disloyalty to Jeremy at all.
“There has been a bit of an argument about Europe but, you know, people would expect us to have that.
“That was nothing to do with Jeremy.
“There is that need for us to get behind (him) as one united house, as you put it, but I will say this … if we fail to listen to the public we deserve everything we get.
“That goes across every single political party, it goes across every trade union, every business.
“You get what you deserve if you don’t listen to your customers or your voters, and what people are telling us on the doorsteps, whether we like hearing it or not, is they don’t think that the Labour Party has a pathway to power at Westminster and therefore they will take their votes elsewhere.”
He added: “Until we can provide people with the hope that the Labour Party and the Labour movement has a pathway to power, how can we possibly persuade people to vote for us?
“The bounce we would get in Scotland if we people could think we would get a Labour government at Westminster would be immeasurable.”
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