Jeremy Corbyn’s allies in Scotland have called for plans to make Labour more autonomous north of the border to be blocked.
If delegates at the party’s UK conference approve plans agreed to by its National Executive Committee, Kezia Dugdale will have more decision making power.
The NEC has approved devolving control over policy, constituency parties and Westminster candidate selections.
It has separately agreed that the Scottish and Welsh parties should each have a voting member of the NEC in future.
But the Campaign for Socialism (CfS), the left wing organisation in the Scottish Labour Party which includes many people loyal to Mr Corbyn, has called parts of the plan “an exercise in patronage not democracy” and want it rejected at the Liverpool gathering.
Their concern centres on the Scottish Labour representative being a member of the party’s Holyrood front bench team, appointed by the Ms Dugdale as the party’s leader in Edinburgh.
CFS wants an elected representative on the NEC, likely to be more left wing and more closely allied with Mr Corbyn.
Campaign for Socialism convener Denise Christie said: “We don’t oppose more autonomy for the Scottish Labour Party, but having a Leader place someone on the NEC is an exercise in patronage not democracy.
“Putting this change in rules through at short notice with no discussion in the wider party would be wrong – conference should refer this back to the NEC for further discussion and hopefully a more democratic.”
Ms Dugdale has been pushing for the reforms to counter the suggestion that the party is a “branch office”, a phrase coined by one of predecessors Johann Lamont during a stormy exit interview.
The current leader said the changes put Scottish Labour “on track to become fully autonomous within the UK Labour Party”.
It is not, however, becoming a separate party and is expected to continue to share finances with the UK party.
The principle of greater autonomy was agreed between Ms Dugdale and the UK leader Jeremy Corbyn a year ago.
Speaking as she left the NEC meeting in London on Tuesday evening, she said: “This is huge change for Scotland, I’m really pleased.
“This is a substantial change, this is going to be an autonomous Scottish Labour party – we’ll have our own say over policy, but we are crucially still part of the wider UK family, so it’s good news for Scottish Labour.”
