NICK Clegg has piled more political pressure on Ed Miliband over the Falkirk row, calling on the Labour leader to come clean about the "seriously dodgy" selection process.

The Deputy Prime Minister said the Labour leadership appeared to be "puppets on a string" for the trade union bosses, who provided the bulk of the party's funding.

"It's like some sort of Monty Python parody of the Soviet Union. The whole thing is so mysterious," declared Mr Clegg on his weekly London radio show.

Referring to the controversy over the choice of a successor to MP Eric Joyce -who quit Labour after a Commons bar brawl - the Liberal Democrat leader said: "Something seriously dodgy clearly happened in Falkirk.

"It really is time the Labour Party leadership come clean with people about what happened so people know - given that this is a party that wants to run the country from May 2015 - what kind of party it is."

Mr Miliband has already rejected calls for Labour's original probe to be reopened in the wake of the publication of a tranche of emails.

These came from constituency chairman Stevie Deans, which opponents claim raise fresh questions about alleged attempts to rig the selection vote in favour of Karie Murphy, the Unite-backed candidate. The union denies any wrongdoing and claims it is the victim of a smear campaign.