One of Labour's main leftist factions has accused the Scottish wing of the party of holding back the UK wide effort to put Jeremy Corbyn in Number 10.

In new analysis of last month's general election defeat, the Campaign for Socialism claimed a narrow focus on unionism north of the border had stifled the so-called "Corbyn effect".

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale during the campaign

insisted she had faith in Mr Corbyn, despite backing rival Owen Smith during last year's leadership challenge.

Labour held its sole Scottish seat and secured six more in the general election, including one for Paul Sweeney, a Glasgow candidate who had called for Mr Corbyn to resign.

A Campaign for Socialism spokesman said the 2017 election effort still owed too much to the kind of anti-SNP rhetoric pioneered by Ms Dugdale's predecessor, the rightist former minister Jim Murphy.

He said: "In Scotland we looked more like Jim Murphy's Labour Party than Jeremy Corbyn's - and that isn't a good look.

"We need to change - but that's more about changing emphasis than leadership.

"Jeremy has put Labour on the path to government across the UK because 'for the many, not the few' is a message that resonates, it's one that Scottish Labour needs to send."

The remarks come as Mr Corbyn brings his UK tour of marginal constituencies to Scotland next month, where he is targeting up to 18 SNP seats.

The Labour leader is keeping his party on an election footing in case Theresa May's minority government collapses and another election is called.

Of the 64 seats Labour needs to win to secure a parliamentary majority, 18 - more than a quarter - are in Scotland.

Analysis from the party's Scottish vice chair, Lesley Brennan, published by the Campaign for Socialism this week shows Labour's vote only rose by one per cent north of the border, compared with 38 per cent in England and Wales.

Ms Brennan, who was briefly a list MSP in the last Holyrood parliament, wrote: "In Scotland, where the Scottish Party led an anti-SNP campaign with the ‘send a Nicola message’ narrative that almost silenced Jeremy’s message of ‘for the many’, only saw a very small increase."

Now under Mr Corbyn the party hopes to target wafer-thin SNP majorities in Central Belt seats. Glasgow South West, Glasgow East, Airdrie and Shotts, Lanark and Hamilton East, Motherwell and Wishaw, Inverclyde and Dunfermline and West Fife, where swings of less than 1% are required for Labour to win.

Asked about the Campaign for Socialism remarks, a spokesman for the Scottish party said: "The overwhelming majority of Scottish Labour members are united behind our vision for a Scotland that is part of a United Kingdom which works for the many, not the few.

“Scottish Labour ran a positive pro-UK anti-austerity campaign that highlighted how we would improve the lives of people across Scotland. "That dual message directly led to six gains for the Labour Party."

The spokesman, echoing Mr Corbyn, said the party was on an election footing. Individual candidates have confirmed they have not dismantled Central Belt machines which ran the SNP close, not least in Glasgow.

An SNP spokesman was quick to highlight differences between the Scottish and UK Labour parties. He said: "On Mr Corbyn's trip north, perhaps he can discuss all the policy differences with the head of his Scottish branch office - such as Trident renewal. That is, if they are on speaking terms.''