The former leader of the Labour Party in Scotland claims the party should reopen its inquiry into the highly controversial Falkirk selection process.
Henry McLeish is the latest to call for the move, following in the footsteps of senior figures including former chancellor Alistair Darling and former home secretary Jack Straw
“The public, the Labour Party and Unite members deserve to know what actually took place, so I would support an inquiry,” he said.
“We have to treat the public with respect and the only way we can do that and I know it hurts and there may be some difficult things to reveal is to be transparent with them.
“There is a lot of public disillusionment. People think political parties operate in a different world.”
Visiting Scotland last week, UK Labour leader Ed Miliband insisted there was no new evidence to justify a fresh probe.
However, McLeish insists a probe is warranted and suggested it could be led by the party’s Scottish leader, Johann Lamont.
“UK Labour is too centralist, too prescriptive, too inflexible and doesn’t represent the government structure of the United Kingdom,” he said.
“We’ve got to accept now in Scotland that we cannot continue to see the leader of the Labour party with one arm tied behind her back because it means we cannot tackle issue in our own backyard, in Scotland.”
Meanwhile, it has been claimed the boss of Britain’s biggest union, Unite, which is involved in the Falkirk vote-rigging inquiry, faces an investigation into irregularities in his own election.
The Sunday Times reported that the election of Unite’s general secretary Len McCluskey included ballots from non-members.
It stated that the Certification Office the union regulator which has the power to order Mr McCluskey’s election to be rerun has launched an investigation.
Unite has consistently denied any wrongdoing in Falkirk and did not comment on the latest allegations.