UNITE leader Len McCluskey has described leaked emails relating to the Falkirk row as a "trap being laid by Tory central office".
His comments came as a senior Tory MP demanded that Labour leader Ed Miliband reopen his party's investigation into the Falkirk candidate selection process.
Priti Patel, a member of Downing Street's policy board, wrote to Mr Miliband after new emails emerged that appear to show the inquiry found indications of forgery, coercion, trickery and manipulation.
It came as Gregor Poynton, who at one time hoped to be a frontrunner in the race to be Labour's candidate in the constituency, reportedly accused former Labour election campaign chief Tom Watson MP of being "involved in it all behind the scenes".
Unite has been embroiled in claims it tried to pack the local party to ensure its favoured candidate was selected to Falkirk in the next General Election. There have also been claims union officials who were involved as key witnesses changed their testimony.
Later, it emerged that Stephen Deans, the Unite official at the centre of the Grangemouth dispute, is to stand down as chairman of the Labour party in Falkirk. It followed a meeting of the constituency party at Camelon Labour Club yesterday, called after Mr Deans resigned from the Grangemouth refinery.
However, Ms Patel wrote to Mr Miliband: "I would urge you to reopen the inquiry into the Falkirk selection and explain why you asked Tom Watson to retain his position as Labour election campaign chief."
The leaked emails reportedly suggest the Labour investigation found "there was no doubt that members were recruited in an attempt to manipulate party processes", "evidence that signatures were forged", and that "individuals have been coerced into signing direct debit forms", while others did not understand what they were signing.
Mr McCluskey hit back at suggestions Unite had rewritten witness statements.
"This idea that Unite has rewritten and evidence from the families has been withdrawn" he said. "The families, which is part of Stevie Deans's family, actually clarified the position - they were the ones that indicated they were being misrepresented."
He also denied Unite had read the changed witness statements but confirmed Mr Deans had been involved in discussions about them.
"I don't deny that at all - it's his family. This is an ordinary, decent family that was suddenly faced with the full weight of the establishment - the police, a forensic solicitor. Of course they spoke to Stevie Deans."
The union insists these issues have already been investigated by the Labour party and Unite was found to have done nothing wrong. It added: "Specifically, Unite entirely denies any involvement in or knowledge of the forging of signatures on application forms or of any documents whatsoever; the coercing of individuals to join the Labour party - however that might be accomplished; the recruitment of individuals to the party without their knowledge or any other breach of Labour party rules. Unite called for an independent public enquiry into what happened in Falkirk, and we remain entirely happy to assist such an inquiry."
Meanwhile, last night it was reported that Lorraine Kane, 61, who triggered the probe into electoral corruption when she said she had been signed up to the Labour Party without her consent, had said she "did not change the testimony".
She added: "I did not change anything. I did not withdraw anything."
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