ScotRail franchise operator Abellio told Scottish Labour to stop using the hashtag 'ScotFail' at a private meeting between the pair, according to a senior party source.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, and transport spokesman Neil Bibby, attended the meeting on November 10 alongside colleagues after Labour criticised the Abellio's performance.

According to a senior source inside the party, the company's "number one" priority at the meeting was to stop Labour using '#ScotFail' in official communications.

Abelllio has been criticised for failing to meet the 91.3% punctuality target which is stipulated in its contract.

Criticism against the operator reached a peak earlier this month when thousands of passengers faced disruption after services between Glasgow and Edinburgh were cancelled or delayed during the morning rush hour after a train broke down.

The source told STV News: "Of all the problems we are seeing with ScotRail at the moment - trains delayed, cancelled, overcrowded, or trains skipping stops - it was pretty astonishing that the number one item on the agenda was the use of a hashtag.

"Mind you, if they think we're bad, they should see some of Humza Yousaf's tweets."

Earlier this week, the Scottish Conservatives re-published a host of old tweets from the now-transport minister Humza Yousaf who himself used the hashtag when criticising the country's rail service.

Yousaf has apologised to rail passengers who have faced delays for cancelled services in recent weeks. The minister has threatened Abellio with "very, very serious consequences" if "they do not improve their performance".

The minister has also pledged to create a new public sector body to bid for the ScotRail when it comes up for renegotiation in 2020. If the agency wins the contract it would replace Abellio in 2020.

The company however hit back at Yousaf and the Scottish Government on Monday saying it was them who were responsible for overcrowding on the country's rail network.

Abellio said the source who divulged details of the private meeting to STV News had misrepresented the events.

A spokesman for the rail company said: "This is a silly story and is obviously a misrepresentation of a constructive meeting we had with Labour politicians.

"We will carry on working hard with our frontline staff to improve performance during one of the most significant periods of investment since the railway was built."

When asked if the source had indeed "misrepresented" what took place at the talks, a party spokesman told STV News that they "don't comment on private meetings".

At the same meeting, Abellio warned Bibby to stop accusing the company of siphoning profits it makes from the Scottish rail franchise to its Dutch parent company Nederlandse Spoorwegen.

Bibby had previously said the transport company, rather than invest money in Scotland to "improve services", instead transfer "millions of pounds of profits from passenger fares" which go "abroad to fund the railways in the Netherlands".

A Labour source told STV News they would only cease the accusations if Abellio UK put it in writing that they do not transfer profits overseas.

After the meeting, Abellio wrote to Bibby warning him he will be "challenged" if he makes any further accusations.

In a letter seen by STV News, Abellio said: " In our published accounts for the first nine months of the contract, we reported (on page 10) a profit of £9.5m.

"All of that money has been reinvested in the franchise, so you will understand our frustration that this fact is occasionally misrepresented.

"The notion that money is somehow being spirited to the Netherlands is not true and we will robustly challenge any suggestion to the contrary."