LABOUR is “alive and kicking” in Scotland despite predictions of its demise, Jeremy Corbyn will say today.

Addressing the Scottish Labour conference in Dundee on its opening day, Mr Corbyn will attack the Tories and the SNP alike for their “obsession” with “elite deals” to pave the way for Britain’s departure from the European Union.

The conference is expected to see key figures on the party’s right pressing for commitment to continued British membership of the EU single market.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard favours Mr Corbyn’s preferred option of tariff-free access to the single market and a new customs union between Britain and the EU.

“Make no mistake about it, reduced access to European markets means fewer economic opportunities for people in the UK,” Mr Corbyn is expected to say.

“This is why we need a Labour government to take the reins from the free market ideologues who want to use Brexit to sign a race-to-the-bottom trade deal with Trump’s America and turn the UK into a deregulated offshore tax haven.

“With the Tories obsessed with elite deals in Westminster and Brussels and the SNP obsessed with elite deals in Edinburgh, Labour is the only party focusing on the issues that matter to people in their everyday lives.”

Mr Corbyn will praise the party north of the border for having refuted those claiming that it was destined for oblivion. 

“The truth is that we very much are alive and kicking,” he will proclaim. “Labour in Scotland is back.

“We are making Labour’s voice heard for a radically fairer society.

“We won six seats for Scottish Labour at the last general election and we are on the cusp of winning around 20 more.”