Jeremy Corbyn poses with a toy panda ahead of major speech to Scottish Labour

Jeremy Corbyn has been photographed posing with a toy panda ahead of a major speech to Scottish Labour. 

The leader of the Labour party stood for pictures with the panda as he visited a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) exhibition stall at the party' Spring Conference in Perth. 

Mr Corbyn held the cuddly animal as he geared up to call on supporters not to "give up" following a humiliating by-election defeat in Copeland.

It is not the first time Mr Corbyn has been caught holding an unusual object in public. 

Before attending his first Labour Party Conference in his new position as leader, Mr Corbyn was mocked for posing with a giant marrow.

In his speech to the conference  this afternoon, Mr Corbyn said now was not the time to "retreat, run away or give up", despite the embarrassing loss of the seat to the Tories. 

The under-fire leader said "cannot lie and say the result in Copeland was what we wanted", but also insisted the "time has come" for his Left-wing policies.

The loss of Copeland shows the "scale of how hard our task is to persuade people of our message", Mr Corbyn said.

He also insisted: "The policies and ideas we are setting out are policies whose time has come. But to win that fight we need to remain united.

"That's why Labour believes that together we're stronger. Unity is still our strength."