SPLITS in Scottish Labour over Jeremy Corbyn were laid bare last night, as one of the party’s leadership candidates accused the other of “disunity” by failing to back the leader.

Left-winger Richard Leonard ripped into centrist Anas Sarwar at the party’s first hustings in Glasgow, reminding him of how he had turned his back on Mr Corbyn last year.

Mr Sarwar was among 13 MSPs to sign an open letter calling on the UK Labour leader to “do the right thing” and consider his position in a failed ‘coup’ by Labour MPs.

He now insists he wants Mr Corbyn to be Prime Minister.

Mr Leonard, a former GMB official who has been backed by three unions so far, including Unite, has been one of Mr Corbyn’s most prominent supporters at Holyrood.

In response to an audience question about Mr Corbyn, Mr Leonard did not name Mr Sarwar - he did not need to - but contrasted his own loyalty with those who turned on the leader.

He said: “Last year, some people thought, as an act of luxury, even though we were in third place in Scotland, of causing a split inside the Labour party.

“I don’t know which planet they’re on, but we are in a position where we can’t afford the luxury of that kind of disunity.

“I was pleased to stand on a platform last summer in support of Jeremy Corbyn… because [in July 2015] when all those [184 Labour] MPs decided to abstain on severe cuts in social security benefits to some of our most vulnerable people in society, I was ashamed.

“Jeremy Corbyn voted against those cuts and that marked him out as the kind of person who should be leading this Labour party.

“Sometimes saying those kinds of things makes me unpopular, and off-message, but I’ve always said those kinds of things for the last 30 years.

“So if you want consistency, if you want somebody who’s been proud to call themselves, throughout, a democratic socialist, then please vote for me as leadership candidate.”

Mr Leonard, 55, a Central Scotland MSP, also took a dig at Mr Sarwar over his family business, after it emerged last week it did not pay staff the £8.45 an hour real living wage promoted by Labour.

Mr Sarwar is not a director of United Wholesale (Scotland) Ltd, but has a 23 per cent stake worth up to £4.8m in the firm, which also has no formal union recognition in place.

In the first minute of his opening remarks, Mr Leonard said inequality was “rife” in Glasgow.

He said: “What work there is is all too often precarious, short term, agency and zero hours, with one in five Glasgow workers earning less than the Living Wage of £8.45 an hour.

“This is no time to tinker around the edges. We need wholesale, real, and radical change.”

He said he would be a “credible and consistent leader” in tune with Labour values.

Mr Sarwar, 34, a Glasgow list MSP, stressed his electability: “I am the candidate who can unite our party and help deliver a Labour government across the UK and Jeremy Corbyn as our next Prime Minister.

“But helping to elect a UK Labour government is not the only job for a Scottish Labour leader – it is also to persuade the people of Scotland that a Scottish Labour Government and a Scottish Labour First Minister matter too.

“Labour’s first First Minister, Donald Dewar, was from Glasgow. I believe I can be our next First Minister, so that together we can put Labour values at the heart of Scotland’s future.”

There was also criticism after chairwoman Linda Stewart banned audience questions about the candidates’ finances and domestic life.

Such questions would have been more likely to hurt Mr Sarwar, a millionaire who sends his sons to a £10,000-a-year private school.

SNP MSP Clare Haughey said: “It’s questions for the few not the many at Labour hustings – so embarrassed by these so-called leadership front-runners that even questions from their own supporters are banned.

“This contest has descended into farce even quicker than most would have imagined.”

A Scottish Labour spokesman said: “This is standard procedure for any internal selection hustings in the Labour Party. Both candidates were notified of this before the hustings began.”

Mr Sarwar last week said he was parking Labour’s tanks on Nicola Sturgeon’s lawn in his effort to become First Minister.

After he ended the hustings by saying he would be on Ms Sturgeon’s lawn “every day”, the First Minister tweeted she would “even pay him the real living” to mow it.