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Trade union baron Len McCluskey has again stoked tensions at the heart of Scottish Labour with an explosive outburst against Kezia Dugdale.

Mr McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, accused the party’s leader north of the border of doing a “disservice” by supporting Owen Smith when he challenged Jeremy Corbyn for the top job.

This is the second time in less than a year Mr McCluskey has launched a personal attack on Ms Dugdale and he received a stinging rebuke from Labour MSP Jackie Baillie, who accused him of doing “a disservice to his members.”

Mr McCluskey told the Sunday Herald: “I thought Kezia was wrong and I thought it was inappropriate for her as leader of the Scottish Labour Party to make the points she made both before and during the election and indeed since the election.

“I’d have thought it would have been much more statespersonlike if she’d adopted a position like Carwyn Jones, the Welsh First Minister, who despite the fact that Owen Smith was a Welsh MP, stayed neutral. That’s what Kezia should have done and I think she’s done both herself and Scottish Labour a disservice.”

In comments which will likely cause further consternation between Ms Dugdale and her deputy Alex Rowley, Mr McCluksey backed the Mid Scotland and Fife MSP’s calls for a more federal UK, adding: “Alex speaks a lot of sense”.

Recriminations continue to rage over Mr Rowley stating: “I have never considered myself a Unionist” as Scottish Labour struggles to define itself in the aftermath of the independence referendum.

Ms Dugdale has declared she was “proud to vote No” in September 2014.

© PA

McCluskey said: “I think the whole question of independence is a question that has captured the minds of the Scottish people and therefore for any political party to be relevant it has to respond to that.

“The question of the Union is something from an English point of view that doesn’t necessarily occupy your mind.

“As a worker growing up in Liverpool it never occupied my mind. All that I know is that I have a strong affinity with the Scottish working class.

“The issue with the Union, the UK, is not uppermost in my mind. What is though, is the solidarity with workers whether it’s in Glasgow or Grimsby.”

In a final swipe, Mr McCluskey, who told Ms Dugdale she should apologise to Scots for her party “betraying” working people in January, appeared to back Mr Rowley as being the man to steer Labour’s policy path in Scotland.

He said: “I think Alex speaks a lot of sense. It is extraordinary what’s happened in Scotland. Of course we were told as long ago as 2007 when the SNP was targeting seats in the East End of Glasgow that they were beginning to be perceived as a more radical social democratic party then Labour.

“Unfortunately 2011 saw the SNP’s further advances and of course it’s been a steady move since. Last years’s [General] Election was like a tsunami.

“So Scottish Labour does have to take a serious look at itself and effectively say to the Scottish people that it is Labour on their side that speaks their language and that language has to be one of opposing austerity and supporting a fairer, more just Scottish society where working people receive the fruits of their labour. So the idea that Alex posed in the context of a Socialist argument, I think that was the correct thing to do.”

He added: “Whether you are for or against independence in Scotland, what you have to be for is a fair share of wealth for Scottish working people and at the moment Labour have lost their edge. So I think what Alex has been is saying, in fact I’ve been saying it myself, is that Labour has to recapture its radical traditions.”

Mr McCluskey also suggested the SNP could help keep a minority Labour government in power and claimed asking whether or not Jeremy Corbyn can win a general election is “the wrong question”.

Labour’s economy spokeswoman Ms Baillie said: “These comments from Len McCluskey are disappointing at a time when Scottish Labour under Kez’s leadership is successfully holding the SNP government to account on issues that really matter to people, such as our hospitals and public transport.

“We had a leadership election in the summer and it is time for everyone to move on. Personal attacks like this do nothing to help communities suffering as a result of SNP and Tory austerity.

“The SNP’s cuts are hurting working families, so any suggestion the Nationalists are a progressive force is just plain wrong, as Len should realise.

“His comments do a disservice to his members. Everyone in the Labour movement should unite around Kez’s plan to stop the cuts and invest in public services.”

A Scottish Labour spokesman said: “Labour are the only party in Scotland who stand for what the majority of Scots want – a strong Scottish Parliament in the UK with close links to Europe. Labour are the only major party in Scotland who are willing to use the tax powers of the Scottish Parliament to invest in our economy rather than carry on the cuts.

“Kezia Dugdale and Jeremy Corbyn have been clear that there will be no Westminster deal with the SNP, whose obsession with independence would mean harder austerity in Scotland that would see the poorest lose the most.”

A party source added: “Like the majority of members in Scotland, Kezia Dugdale backed Owen Smith to be leader of the Labour Party.”