Wendy Alexander last night called for financial controls at Holyrood, going further than the Labour leadership has ever done in backing a shift in powers.

Wendy Alexander last night called for financial controls at Holyrood, going further than the Labour leadership has ever done in backing a shift in powers.

The Scottish Labour leader told BBC's Question Time that English resentment at the share-out of resources should be addressed by looking at "the housekeeping bills". This is the first time she has spelled out support for a significant shift in fiscal powers.

Senior Labour figures have argued strongly against adding powers to those decided nearly 10 years ago in the Scotland Act, so this marks a major departure for the party in the wake of its humiliating loss of power earlier this year.

If it has not been cleared with Gordon Brown's leadership team in London - and there is no signal of that yet - it risks opening a row within the Labour Party. Ms Alexander told the BBC's studio audience in Glasgow that the issue is more important to most English people than resolving the problems arising from Scottish MPs having the power to influence English affairs when the English MPs cannot influence Scottish domestic matters.

The Scottish Labour leader said of the UK and recent pressures over voting powers and money distribution: "There's greater resentment in England, but there is a desire in Scotland to walk taller rather than to walk out. And part of walking taller is that we should take more financial responsibility for our own affairs in Scotland. We should not let the housekeeping bills get in the way of breaking the marriage. But the housekeeping bills deserve to be looked at again."

Ms Alexander said: "I don't take the position of being an unthinking unionist. There are tensions between Scotland and England. There are issues to be resolved. There's more interest in the financial relationship than on the question of votes."

Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP's deputy leader, welcomed her opponent's "conversion" to Scotland taking on more financial powers.

Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Tory leader who was also on Question Time, made a strong plea for English viewers not to fall for the "myths" from some commentators and parts of the English media about Scotland being over-generously funded by the Treasury.