RIVAL camps in the Scottish Labour leadership race clashed last night after accusations of a trade-union stich up were made against Richard Leaonard.

Leonard, who is known for his connections to trade unions, was forced to deny that Len McCluskey's Unite was working to game the system in order to get the Corbyn-supporting candidate elected.

The claim followed reports that 2,700 member of Unite had signed up to the union's political levy in just two days, giving them the opportunity to vote in the Labour leadership election.

The increase in members contributing to the levy came following a text and email campaign, and sit on top of the 5,000 levy-payers the union already has.

Sources close to Sarwar claimed that Scottish labour activists "wouldn't take kindly" to any interference from the union.

Leonard told the Herald that he did not think the surge of levy-paying union members would have any impact on the leadership election result.

He stated: “There are 21,000 members of the Labour Party and they will determine who the next leader of the Scottish Labour Party is and I’m quite happy to make my appeal to them and for them to be the judges of me on my policies, the consistency of my politics and the values I hold."

Leonard now has the backing of four major unions: Unite, Usdaw, TSSA and Aslef. Unison is due to meet today to decide who it will back, though it is expected that Leonard will be the candidate.

The left-wing candidate has voiced gratitude to the support he has recived from the trade unions, as well as the grassroot membership.

“The trade unions set the Labour Party up and trade union members are the very people that the Labour Party should be reaching out to and any trade union members who are considering becoming affiliated supporters should consider becoming full members of the Labour Party because that’s where they belong,” he explained.

Anas Sarwar's team have voiced concern that the unions could swing the vote in Leonard's favour.

A senior source close to the Glasgow MSP said: “Scottish Labour fought hard for its autonomy from the UK party. Members won’t take kindly to any attempt by Unite to return Scottish Labour to a branch office.”