Unite leader Len McCluskey electrified Labour conference yesterday with a call for the party to inspire the working class after its “near death” experience in Scotland.

Mr McCluskey said the unprecedented engagement in Thursday’s referendum showed that working people matter.

He said it had “sent the elite into a panic” and urged Labour leader Ed Miliband to learn the lessons before next year’s general election.

“Let the Scottish referendum be the tombstone on 20 years of our party’s indifference to the interests of the working class,” he said.

“It took a referendum campaign to remind us that you ignore the hopes of working people at your political peril.”

Members shot to their feet in a standing ovation after Mr McCluskey’s rallying call to the Manchester conference.

He fired the warning at party leaders while presenting Unite’s motion calling on Labour to rid the economy of low pay and zero-hours contracts.

Speaking before shadow chancellor Ed Balls’s speech, he added: “Enough with caution and hedging our economic bets.

“Let’s sweep away the fear and inertia that’s shackled us for too long and stand before the British people as the party of peace, equality and socialist change.”

Scottish Labour leaders led a celebration of Thursday’s referendum No vote at the Manchester conference.

They pledged to win back the party’s heartlands that voted Yes to independence.

The biggest sign that Labour’s grip on Scotland had loosened came when Glasgow backed independence by 53 per cent to 47 per cent.

Politics Professor John Curtice gave Labour members a frank assessment of the party’s situation at an Electoral Reform Society fringe yesterday.

“Red Clydeside is no longer Red Clydeside — it is nationalist Clydeside,” he claimed.

“One in three of those people who voted for Labour in 2011 voted Yes.

“It’s now perfectly clear that demand for a stronger Scottish Parliament is particularly strong among those people who you might once have called traditional Labour voters.”

Labour MSP Sarah Boyack said employment tribunals could be devolved along with “big ticket” welfare programmes.

“It’s about protecting people from the worst excesses of a Tory government but staying within the union,” she said.