Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has pledged to back a bill in the wake of the Bill Walker scandal to shorten the jail time politicians are sentenced to before being thrown out of office.
Dunfermline and West Fife MP Thomas Docherty is bringing a bill through Westminster that could change the law and see the disqualification period shortened.
Ex-Dunfermline MSP Walker eventually quit after being found guilty of carrying out 23 instances of domestic assault against three ex-wives and a stepdaughter over a period of almost 30 years.
However, the former SNP member could not have been thrown out of Holyrood because the maximum jail term he could receive was a year one day less than the required amount to disqualify him as an elected member.
Sheriff Katherine Mackie imposed the toughest sentence available on the 71-year-old last month.
Mr Balls told The Courier the fact Walker could have clung on to his taxpayer-funded salary even after sentencing showed there “is something wrong with the system”.
He said: “Being sentenced to prison for seven, eight or nine months and being allowed to carry on as an elected member strikes me as being very, very odd.
“I think a man who has beat up his wives and is convicted and could carry on as an elected member shows that there is something wrong with the system and that needs sorted out.
“We will need to talk through with Thomas the exact details of his bill but I think this has thrown up a problem which needs to be solved.
“It must be consistent with natural justice and innocent until proven guilty but when you get a situation like this, it is just wrong.”
No set time for a new disqualification period has been proposed by Labour as yet, with Mr Docherty previously saying suggestions were being consulted on.
Mr Balls was speaking during a visit to Dunfermline, where he toured the Lloyds Banking Group call centre with Labour’s by-election candidate, Cara Hilton.
He said Ms Hilton stood “for jobs and low energy prices.”
“Or you can vote for the SNP, which is essentially now in this by-election, with their candidate, an independence party. I think it is very important we win this by-election,” he added.
However, Mr Balls refused to be drawn on local issues such as the proposed school closures, instead saying devolved issues should be down to Scotland-based politicians.
He cast severe doubt over Alex Salmond’s claims Scotland would keep the pound in the event of independence, saying it would be a “very, very difficult negotiation” no matter who was in Downing Street.
Mr Balls said he was “quite taken aback” by Scottish energy minister Fergus Ewing’s rejection of a Labour pledge to freeze energy prices if elected in 2015.
He claimed Mr Ewing’s statement at Holyrood meant “you can vote SNP for high energy prices.”
He added: “I don’t understand the politics of it. I don’t know what he thinks he is doing.”