LABOUR leadership candidate Jess Phillips' attempt to attack Nicola Sturgeon has been branded "embarrasssing" ahead of her visit to Scotland. 

Scottish Constitutional Relations Secretary Michael Russell hit out at Phillips who accused the SNP of being a “threat to opportunity and equality” for working people in Scotland.

She tweeted: "The SNP’s abject failings on education and health show that it is your [Nicola Sturgeon's] administration that remains a threat to opportunity and equality for working people in Scotland."

But Russell hit back, saying the Birmingham Yardley MP's criticism of the SNP is "embarrasssing".

Phillips will travel to Glasgow on Tuesday, with the MP expected to pledge that any future Labour Party that she leads will be “100% committed to the Union”.

READ MORE: Jess Phillips: 'I don't think we should have another indyref'

Last week, it was announced party leader Richard Leonard would be seeking to engage with members on Scottish Labour’s position on independence, with a view being outlined in the spring.

However, the party’s Scottish Executive rejected Leonard’s proposals for a special conference on federalism, which could have seen it support a multi-option referendum on independence.

“The idea that the answer to the UK leaving a union with our most important trading partner is for Scotland to leave a union with her most important trading partner only makes sense if you’re a nationalist,” said Phillips.

“Nicola Sturgeon wants to talk to me about threats to Scotland – the SNP’s abject failings on education and health show that it is her administration that remains a threat to opportunity and equality for working people in Scotland.”

Phillips also said that Labour should be making the case for solidarity and “internationalism”.

“Labour believes in the Union because we believe in redistribution, because we want to bring people together, not divide them, and because our compassion doesn’t end at an imaginary line on a map.

“Let nationalists make the case for nationalism, we should make the argument for solidarity and internationalism.”

A spokeswoman for the SNP described the contribution by Phillips as “ill-informed”.

“People in Scotland simply don’t trust the Labour Party – and increasingly arrogant interventions by leadership candidates are doing nothing to change that,” she said.

“It’s disappointing that Jess Phillips would deny the people of Scotland their right to basic democracy – and would rather we remain shackled to a chaotic, dysfunctional and increasingly right-wing Tory government.

“With contributions as ill-informed as this, it’s no surprise that Jess Phillips is expected to have little impact in the Labour leadership election.”