SCOTTISH LABOUR accused the SNP today of being “out of touch, out of steam and out of ideas,” following the party’s latest strategy on independence.

It came after SNP deputy leader Keith Brown said that winning most Scottish parliamentary seats at Westminster in the next general election would be seen as a mandate for leaving the union even if the party won fewer seats than in the last general election.

That outcome looks likely following the party’s disastrous Rutherglen by-election defeat and the continuing police investigation into its finances.