THE SNP must “protect Scottish jobs and the Scottish economy” after last month’s vote to leave the EU, Labour said yesterday.

Scottish Labour published a Brexit action plan outlining steps the Scottish government should take following the vote to leave the European Union such as creating a fund for threatened sectors, investing in infrastructure and guarantees on workers’ rights and job security.

Scottish Labour economy spokeswoman Jackie Baillie warned that the SNP had “a duty to protect Scottish jobs and the Scottish economy from the fallout of Brexit in the short, medium and long term.”

Ms Baillie said “bringing forward infrastructure spending will give our economy a boost — and Labour would argue the primary focus should be house building so we can tackle Scotland’s housing crisis.”

She said it was “vital” that the SNP had a plan in place and called on it to “establish a Brexit support fund for industries most at risk” and use the new “tax powers of the Scottish Parliament to stop the cuts to public services.”

Unite Scotland secretary Pat Rafferty welcomed Scottish Labour’s calls for progressive policies, saying he hoped they were “a further signal that they are fully on board with the case promoted by Jeremy Corbyn for alternatives to austerity.”

But he warned that it is “too soon to judge what specific effects the Brexit decision will have on the Scottish economy — or what the future relationship of Scotland with the EU should be.”

Mr Rafferty said Unite’s priorities were how to best defend jobs and workers’ rights, protect the rights of EU nationals living in working in the UK and challenging the “alarming rise of racism and xenophobia.”

He said “hard questions” needed to be asked about whether Scotland should be “independent in the EU” given that the SNP had previously argued that their scope for action on public ownership, implementing the living wage and blocking public contracts going to blacklisting companies was limited due to EU regulation.

Mr Rafferty also queried what it would it mean for austerity “given the EU’s emphasis on deficit reduction involving restrictions on spending and borrowing.”

A spokesman for Scottish Economy Secretary Keith Brown said: “We welcome Labour’s support for our efforts to secure Scotland’s relationship with the EU.”