Ed Miliband has admitted a Unite member who claims she joined the Labour Party without her knowledge was signed up by her father but refused to say if the process broke any rules.
It has been reported that Michelle Hornall is standing by her claim she was one of around half a dozen people to have become a party member in Falkirk without their knowledge.
Mrs Hornall maintains she was signed up to Labour by Stephen Deans, the chairman of the local constituency party and a Unite convener, without her consent and using her maiden name, which she has not used since she was 20. Mr Deans has since resigned his union role.
When asked about the issue during an appearance in Scotland on Thursday, Mr Miliband said it was important to look at any potential new evidence.
However, he added: “What you will find with a case like this lady is her father, Mr Kane, has given us a sworn affidavit he was the person who signed up his family to the Labour Party.
“So we have very, very clear and legal evidence from those concerned about how this lady was signed up.”
When pressed on whether he thought it was right for one member of a family to sign up others in the family, Mr Miliband listed the actions taken by Labour in the wake of the scandal being revealed, including suspending the local party, internal reforms and two police inquiries.
He also made a point of stating the process was set up by Tony Blair but had now been scrapped.
Mrs Hornall’s mother, Lorraine, was one of the original whistleblowers who claimed Unite tried to rig votes.
Mrs Hornall has declined to talk directly to the press about what happened to her but her husband, Steven Hornall, reportedly spoke out for the first time to provide her version of events.
He claimed she had been signed up to the party during a meeting between her father and Mr Deans, who is a relative of the family, in a pub last year. Mr Hornall suggested Mr Deans had paid for the membership.
In September, Mr Miliband announced a change of heart by two whistleblowers meant there was no longer enough evidence to prove claims the union “stitched up” the Falkirk seat by signing up its members to the party without their consent.
In his speech at Standard Life’s Edinburgh headquarters, the Labour leader also attacked Alex Salmond and the SNP over their failure to back Labour’s promise to freeze energy prices for two years.
He said: “The Prime Minister, the First Minister and the big six energy companies making a new big eight (are) squeezing the living standards of the Scottish people.”
SNP Falkirk West MSP Michael Matheson challenged Mr Miliband to “go to Falkirk and explain to the local Labour party and the people of Falkirk what exactly he is doing to regain their trust”.