A SCOTTISH Labour MP has said the SNP's mandate for indyref2 is based on a "very hypothetical scenario of leaving the EU" in a car crash BBC interview. 

Shadow Scottish minister Paul Sweeney was responding to John McDonnell's comments that he would not block a second independence referendum. 

"There's no mandate or desire from Scottish people to have one," the Glasgow North East MP told Good Morning Scotland. 

"What we've said, and what John [McDonnell] has said, is that in future there may well be a situation where that changes but it's not in any way foreseeable." 

READ MORE: Indyref2: Labour in crisis as John McDonnell ignores Richard Leonard

Presenter Gary Robertson pointed out that Sweeney's point is different to what McDonnell said. "That's not what he said, he said he would not block a second independence referendum. Richard Leonard's position, the position I presume you stood on, was to block that, to say no to it if there were a Labour Government." 

Sweeney responded: "Yeah he said in future if there were a mandate for one and there isn't a mandate for one." 

Asked if there would be a different manifesto next time and if the party's position would change, Sweeney said the position is "not changing". 

He added: "The position is basically if that in future there is a decisive mandate, i.e. if a majority of Scottish MSPs stand on a manifesto decisively and … want a second referendum on this issue and it delivers a majority of MSPs in the Scottish Parliament on that basis very, very explicitly, then it’s very difficult —” 

Robertson interrupted him to say there is a pro-independence majority in the Scottish Parliament at the moment and the vote is back on the table now because circumstances has changed.

He referred to a recent Lord Ashcroft poll which is the first to have a lead for independence since March 2017, and asked whether Labour acknowledges this. 

READ MORE: Scots want independence and they want to vote now

In his response Sweeney hit out at the SNP’s 2016 manifesto, saying the party “buried it [indyref2] very deeply in their manifesto and it was never a feature of the campaign in 2016, it was also based on a very hypothetical scenario of leaving the European Union which wasn’t at that point a fact”. 

However, if you look at the 2016 SNP manifesto, the party’s intention to hold a second referendum is clearly stated in a section titled “moving Scotland forward". 

The manifesto states: “We believe that the Scottish Parliament should have the right to hold another referendum if there is clear and sustained evidence that independence has become the preferred option of a majority of the Scottish people – or if there is a significant and material change in the circumstances that prevailed in 2014, such as Scotland being taken out of the EU against our will.” 

Sweeney also said he would reject a Yes/No question for indyref2, saying there should be a multiple-choice question instead, with a federal United Kingdom as one of the options.

He said a Labour Government would deliver “a radical transformation and federate the United Kingdom”.

He added: “That of course should be a question in that referendum in future. It shouldn’t just be a binary referendum, and we’ll be backing that option.”

That's despite the party losing nearly 46,000 members in a year and a recent report finding Labour is less popular than the Brexit party in Scotland.

READ MORE: Jeremy Corbyn's Labour loses nearly 46,000 members in a year

READ MORE: Labour less popular than the Brexit Party in Scotland​

The full interview can be found on Good Morning Scotland at the 2 hours 12 minutes mark.