Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has called for Scotland to get a new Act of Union - but ruled out giving Scots a vote on it.

In a speech in London Ms Dugdale called for a new People's Constitutional Convention to "save" the UK.

A more federal structure was needed to safeguard the UK from growing pressures, including those created by Brexit, she argued and Labour should set up the convention if the Prime Minister did not.

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She said she was confident that Scots would back a new Act of Union, but she ruled out a public vote.

"I would not back a referendum on that question," she said.

"Referendums force binary choices on people. You are either yes or no, for or against, life is black or white. Actually, it is not. If we are going to heal our country we have to come up with innovative solutions that appeal to both yes and no, leave and remain, and I think this is what this plan does."

Scottish Labour's manifesto for this year's Holyrood elections ruled out a second independence referendum before 20121.

A more federal make-up would help create a "fairer, more equal country," she said, in which Scotland could make more choices but retain a "basic safety net" across the UK.

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She said that her proposal would also help Theresa May's ambition to build a UK "that works for everyone".

She said she would not give up "easily" on her call for the Prime Minister to set up a new constitutional convention.

"I'm giving her a means to do what she says she wants to do which is to unite the country... At its very heart is a plan to bring the country back together," she said.

In her speech she warned that the consequences of the EU referendum risked "breaking the Union once and for all",

"Politics driven by nationalism and identity... have now taken their place firmly in the mainstream of all UK politics," she said.

She added: “While devolution has been positive for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, we have to acknowledge that progress has been erratic and while there has been significant progress in some parts of the UK, other parts have been left behind."

“So I would not want the convention to just deliberate and report, but to produce a new Act of Union which would reaffirm the partnership between our nations and renew it for the future.

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“After more than 300 years, it is time for a new Act of Union to safeguard our family of nations for generations to come.”

She reiterated her call for the Lords to be replaced with a 'senate of the nations and regions".

She will ask her party to back the proposals for an new Act of Union at Scottish Labour's conference in Perth in February.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie welcomed the call for a more federal UK, saying that momentum was "building" behind the idea.

"Federalism is Scotland’s and the United Kingdom’s best chance to flourish,” he added.

But the Conservatives accused Ms Dugdale of advocating more constitutional upheaval.

The party's chief whip at Holyrood John Lamont said: “Surely 10 years of SNP government obsessing over the constitution has taught us that this is the wrong priority."

"Her speech will do nothing to clear peoples' doubts about Labour's position on the Union," he added.