12:46

Jeremy Corbyn’s former campaign director and chief of staff, Simon Fletcher, has joined the campaign to get Richard Leonard, the favourite of Corbyn supporters, elected as the next leader of Scottish Labour.

Fletcher is regarded as one of Labour’s heavyweights, working as an adviser to former London mayor Ken Livingstone, and a former aide to Ed Miliband, the then Labour leader. He left Corbyn’s team in February amid rumours of differences with other senior figures but Leonard’s supporters are delighted.

They feared they would be outgunned by the highly experienced team of senior Scottish Labour campaigners gathered around Anas Sarwar, the other contender for the post left vacant after the surprise resignation of Scottish leader Kezia Dugdale last week

Tensions about the contest are increasing within Scottish Labour after it emerged that Corbyn’s team appeared to have won a battle to get the leadership contest timetable extended, to allow more time to recruit members.

It is understood the Scottish executive committee will agree on Saturday to an extra week for recruitment and campaigning, setting Saturday 18 November as the date to announce the result, a week later than originally proposed.