It would be a "huge mistake" for Ruth Davidson to lead the pro-union campaign during a second Scottish independence referendum, the Scottish Labour leader has said.

Kezia Dugdale outlined her party's approach to a second vote, should it happen, shortly after delegates at her party's conference backed plans for a federal UK.

The Scottish Labour leader repeatedly said she "does not want" a fresh referendum to be held as the first one was "divisive" and the country carries "deep scars" from it.

She said: "One thing I've been thinking a lot about and said a lot about is the hypocrisy at the heart of Ruth Davidson's mission to be the one person in Scotland standing up for the union.

"It is the actions of the Tories which are undermining the union in every step of the way at the moment."

When pressed during a question and answer event if Davidson should lead a new pro-Union campaign, she replied: "I think that would be a huge mistake.

"I think that in this referendum, that is not going to happen, that we could draw some lessons from the EU referendum and have a non-political voice at the forefront of that."

The Scottish Labour leader also made it clear it would be unlikely for her party to be part of a formal joint campaign like Better Together in 2014.

She said: "I cannot imagine that happening. There is undoubtedly a point in a referendum campaign where for legal, and financial reasons, there can only be two sides and you would find different politicians from different parties in each of those two sides.

"That is very different from having a joined-up campaign with another political party."

The first day of the Scottish Labour conference came as the UK party lost the Copeland by-election, a seat it held for decades, and won Stoke Central with a reduced majority.

Dugdale said the result in Copeland was "very disappointing" and she had expected the party to win.

The Scottish Labour leader however refused to criticise Jeremy Corbyn despite repeated questions on his leadership.

She said the party must be judged by its "common endeavours" and the public do not want a "divided party".

In response to her comments on the Scottish Conservative leader, a party spokesman said: ""Considering Kezia Dugdale last year said it wasn't 'inconceivable' that she'd vote for independence, she's hardly in a position to criticise."