SCOTTISH Labour's new party leader Richard Leonard has praised the independence campaign's "vision of a different kind of Scotland".

Leonard said his party must learn lessons from the "positive message” that Yes Scotland promoted ahead of the 2014 referendum.

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Herald, Leonard said the campaign was attractive because it was not "predominantly negative".

In a wide-ranging interview about his policy agenda, Leonard said it was a "possibility" that he would appoint non-MSPs to his shadow cabinet.

The new leader added that he may ask Scottish women’s equality activists to lead a review of how harassment and sexism are tackled in the party.

However, Leonard also launched an audacious bid to woo left-wing independence supporters.

Leonard, an ally of Jeremy Corbyn, set out his strategy to win back seats in working class areas currently held by the SNP.

He stressed his backing for a soft Brexit just days after the UK Labour leadership voted with Tory MPs to block a proposal related to the EU customs union.

Leonard said he believes Britain should retain access to the single market, and insisted that Scottish Labour under his leadership would be a stridently pro-European party. Any Brexit deal must be rejected unless there are guarantees EU citizens can remain in the UK, he added.

He said the protection of workers’ rights that emanate from Brussels and single market membership were also "red line issues" for him.

Leonard's remarks at the end of his very first week as leader, will be seen as an attempt to attract left leaning pro-EU independence supporters.

According to Leonard many Yes voters in the 2014 referendum, were not "wedded to the idea of nationalism and the creation of a separate Scottish state”.

Leonard said they were instead driven by a desire to see a more progressive society.

He said Labour had to occupy similar ground to that which Yes Scotland occupied in 2014 if it was to reconnect with Scots who deserted the party over the last decade.

However, Leonard maintained his opposition to independence, although as a supporter of federalism, he suggested he would promote a more radical approach to devolution than his predecessors.

Scottish Labour unexpectedly took six Westminster seats from the SNP in June's General Election. Corbyn supporters have said the gains were due to Labour's left wing UK manifesto rather than the Scottish leadership, which based much of its campaign on opposition to independence.

Leonard said policies such as renationalisation of rail and buses, as well as higher taxes for top earners, were part of a policy platform that would attract more independence supporters.

He said: "That's the kind of policy agenda that will appeal to people who've been traditionally Labour voters, but who have drifted away. But I also think it offers the prospect of a hopeful vision of the kind of Scotland we can build and I think one of the things that strikes me is that we just recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of the devolution referendum.

"I think we are in a time of reflection and my reflection is - as someone who was involved in campaigning in the 1990s for the establishment of a Scottish Parliament - that we haven't been able to do things sufficiently differently in Scotland."

Leonard said issues such as eradicating child poverty, as well as narrowing the gap between the rich and poor, would be pivotal to his policy platform as leader.

He said: "These are the issues that I think people care about...I think a lot of people voted yes because they looked at the Yes campaign as a campaign that was putting forward a vision of a different kind of Scotland, that was putting forward a positive message and not a predominantly negative message - and I think the Labour Party needs to get onto the ground where in Scotland we are offering that positive message."

However, Leonard refused to criticise Labour at Westminster for voting with the UK Government to block an amendment aimed at keeping the UK in the customs union. Leonard said the amendment from Edinburgh South Labour MP Ian Murray was premature and “putting the cart before the horse” by "pre-empting" Brexit trade talks.

However, Leonard said Labour should oppose the Brexit bill unless key tests over workers' rights and the right of EU nationals to remain were met.

He said: "I think there are some red line issues here, which are hugely important to me and around which any deal that the Tories come back with will stand and fall.

"So unless a deal comes back from the EU which meets the tests which I'm applying in those areas, then I think that deal should be voted down.”

Leonard added: "So my own view is that when we get around to negotiations we should be looking for impediment-free and tariff-free access to the European single market.”

On a separate issue, Leonard also said he may appoint women’s equality activists to lead a review into how sexism and sexual harassment are tackled within the party. Leonard used his victory speech last weekend to pledge to launch an independent route for complaints.

He said: "The profile of the person or the people who we get [to lead a review into sexual harassment] are people who've got a good standing in the equalities movement.

"They've maybe been activists themselves in campaigning against sexual harassment - against sexism and misogyny.

"They are people who anybody who has got a complaint - but also the Labour Party itself - would place their faith in.”