Keir Starmer has called on Scottish Labour to move on from recent divisions by urging colleagues to “pull together”.
He backed Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard and also praised an MP who had considered quitting the party last year.
Starmer is enjoying positive poll ratings as Labour leader, but colleagues are worried about the state of the Scottish party.
Scottish Labour are in third place at Holyrood and MSPs do not expect any improvement at the next election.
Leonard has faced calls from his own MSPs to resign, but a planned motion of no confidence was withdrawn at the weekend at the last minute.
This was in spite of his deputy, Jackie Baillie, as well as MP Ian Murray, signalling support for the motion at the meeting of senior party figures.
Starmer also suffered a blow when it emerged that Murray, who is his shadow Scotland Secretary, had considered defecting to the centrist Independent Group last year.
During a visit to Scotland, Starmer said of Leonard: “I’ve got an excellent working relationship with Richard Leonard and I’m here to talk to him about our priorities going into the election next year. He and I have a shared task in restoring trust in the Labour party.”
Asked if Leonard has his confidence, Starmer said: “Yes, I support Richard Leonard and that’s why we’ll be working together on what we need to do together over the coming weeks and months into the May elections.”
On Murray, he said: “Ian Murray is a first class member of my shadow cabinet, widely respected and doing a really good job.”
Starmer said he ran his own leadership campaign on the importance of party unity: “That’s among the reasons I am here in Scotland today, and that’s why I am talking to colleagues in Scottish Labour today, because what I want to see here in Scotland is our party to pull together and to focus on the job at hand.”
He also repeated his opposition to indyref2, which First Minister Nicola Sturgeon supports:
“I don’t think now is the time for a further divisive referendum.”
Starmer added that he is "frustrated" the SNP is talking about independence "at the moment".
