SCOTTISH Labour’s deputy leader has given in principle backing to Nicola Sturgeon’s plan to secure sweeping new powers for Holyrood in a soft Brexit alternative to independence.

Speaking in Dunfermline last night, Alex Rowley said it was too early for a second referendum, but quite right that more powers should be considered to secure Scotland’s best interests.

Referring to reports the UK government wants to secure EU single market access for the City of London, he said: “Just as the City of London has specific needs, so too does Scotland. We need to see powers coming back from Europe come direct to our parliament in Edinburgh.

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“If it is right for the City of London to get a deal on access, then it is equally right for Scotland to state the case for tariff free access to the single market, for Scotland to be in a position to agree immigration policy to meet the needs of our economy, and for Scotland to set conditions to ensure no rowing back on employment rights which support wages and workplace justice.”

At the SNP conference last week, the First Minister warned Theresa May there would be a second independence referendum unless she devolved more powers, specifically on international agreements and immigration, to achieve a Scotland-only soft Brexit.

She repeated the point in TV interviews on Sunday, when she said Scotland could stay in the single market with its own immigration system while the rest of the UK left it in a hard Brexit.

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Mr Rowley, an advocate of Home Rule, also said he wanted to "move beyond the narrow constraints of nationalism and unionism to what is in the best interest of the people of Scotland" and called for a Constitutional Convention to discuss the distribution of power in the UK.

“Under the Tory government's current proposals, they would repatriate powers from Brussels over agriculture, fisheries, regional policy, VAT and other issues and they plan to centralise these powers in Westminster and Whitehall.

“A far better way - that the constitutional convention can examine - is that these powers come from Brussels not to Westminster but to the nations and regions of the UK.

“What a constitutional convention will show is how we can restructure the British constitution to reflect the social and economic needs and aspirations of the people of the United Kingdom as revealed by their disenchantment with Westminster, with Whitehall and the London elites.”

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An SNP spokesman said: “Alex Rowley is right that Scotland cannot afford to stand back and allow right-wing Tory Brexiteers wreak havoc on our economy and cost us up to 80,000 jobs.

“It is now up to his Labour colleagues – many of whom feel the same way – to join him in speaking up. If special deals are being considered for bankers in the City of London then similar arrangements and a continued place in the single market must be possible for Scotland.”