JEREMY Corbyn has said he is disappointed to have lost the support of Labour’s leader in Scotland, but he ruled out a split if he continues as national party leader.

Mr Corbyn insisted “the Scottish party is not going to split off from the UK party”, and said he would continue to work with Kezia Dugdale despite her support for his rival Owen Smith.

The Labour leader brought his campaign to defend his position to Scotland this week.

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Mr Smith accused him of taking Labour backwards in Scotland in a hustings event in Glasgow on Thursday night, after Scottish Labour finished third behind the Conservatives in the Holyrood election in May.

Labour supporters laughed and jeered at the hustings when Mr Smith suggested Ms Dugdale “is doing a brilliant job” in Scotland.

Speaking in Edinburgh on Friday, Mr Corbyn urged Labour supporters to show respect to Ms Dugdale.

He said: “I don’t think anyone should jeer at anyone else. I don’t do that myself and have asked other people not to and made it very, very clear – let’s have an honest, open and respectful debate.”

Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn has also pledged to reverse years of ‘’systemic under-funding’’ for the arts as he launched his culture strategy in Edinburgh.

Mr Corbyn said a Labour UK government under his leadership would restore £42.8 million in cuts made over the past six years.

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His campaign said that included lost grant-in-aid and expenditure of £24 million in real terms for Arts Council England, £9.6m for Creative Scotland and £9.2m for the Arts Council of Wales.

The cost would be met from £670 million raised by reversing the cuts to capital gains tax brought in by former chancellor George Osborne in the last Budget.

Mr Corbyn said: ‘’Devolution has given the nations and the regions the chance to develop their own cultural identities and enrich us all, and I’m very keen that that should be the case.

‘’Labour will protect this and ensure that we place funding for the arts and culture on the secure financial foundations they require in every part of the country.’’ Mr Corbyn said he would also seek to introduce an arts pupil premium to every primary school in England and Wales, similar to that for PE, amounting to an extra £160 million for cultural activities.

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The Labour leader said Scotland, where arts and education policy is devolved, would receive at least an additional £13 million in consequentials through the Barnett formula as a result.