UNITE union leader Len McCluskey has condemned an internal Labour report into the Falkirk selection row as a "shoddy farce" as he demanded a greater say over the party's future direction.
In his strongest intervention to date, Mr McCluskey hit back at accusations Unite attempted to manipulate the contest to pick Labour's candidate for the seat at the next election and insisted his organisation had obeyed rules introduced by ex-prime minister Tony Blair.
He also claimed that two union members suspended from the Labour party following the allegations would be cleared as he pledged to protect them from a "witch hunt".
The Conservatives seized on his call for a greater influence within the party to accuse Ed Miliband of failing to fundamentally change Labour's relationship with the unions.
The Labour leader has announced plans for sweeping changes, including an end to the automatic opt-in to party affiliation contributions for union members, following the outcry over the Falkirk allegations.
In a speech to union members yesterday, Mr McCluskey hit out at the party's handling of the issue.
"We were within the rules," he said. "Union Join was introduced in 2001 by Tony Blair and allowed unions to pay the first year's subscription of new members."
Describing the internal Labour party report into the claims as a "shoddy farce", he said: "Assertion was passed off as fact, allegation became grounds for conviction.
"It had not one plausible allegation of wrongdoing by Unite. Yet, that report is being used to trample on the rights of Labour members in Falkirk and to smear and slander our union. It suspended two of our members from the Labour party and unleashed the police on decent people. It is an utter, utter disgrace."
The selection process in Falkirk has been suspended and the local party put into special measures.
The Unite members suspended include Karie Murphy, once tipped as a front runner to win the contest to become Labour's candidate in the seat.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article