Labour leader in Scotland Wendy Alexander receives too little cash to carry out her opposition duties, her party has claimed.

Labour leader in Scotland Wendy Alexander receives too little cash to carry out her opposition duties, her party has claimed.

Ms Alexander receives an allowance of £22,466 at Holyrood compared to the £644,000 Tory leader David Cameron receives as leader of the opposition at Westminster, .

And while the Tories at Westminster will receive £3.8 million this year in an allowance scheme which gives cash to opposition parties in line with MP numbers, Labour at Holyrood will receive £247,000.

A plea for a rethink was made to a panel of Holyrood experts by Sarah Metcalfe, who was taken on five weeks ago as director of research for Labour at Holyrood.

She made the plea in a letter to Sir Alan Langlands, heading a team carrying out a review of the Holyrood allowances system.

"The Scottish leader's allowance of £22,466 is insufficient to meet even the full costs to an employer of a private secretary - never mind the public expectations of a leader's office in terms of interest in the party's approach to parliamentary business and associated policy stances," she said.