RELATIONS between Scottish Labour and Britain’s biggest trade union appeared to have descended to a new low following a scathing analysis by Unite of the party’s recent electoral strategy.

Pat Rafferty, Scottish organiser of Unite, accused the Labour leadership of arrogance after failing to listen to its advice in a number of areas, including not sharing a platform with the Tories and LibDems during the referendum campaign and electing Jim Murphy as leader.

But last night a senior Labour source dismissed Rafferty’s criticisms. “This is the usual nonsense from Unite,” the source said.

Rafferty also said the party should not have ignored the union’s “pleas” for putting the case for a second question – offering Devo Max – on the independence referendum ballot paper and should have put the case for substantially more devolved powers to the Smith Commission.

He insisted it gave him “zero satisfaction that our worst predictions have been more than exceeded”, hitting back at suggestions the union had been “sitting on its hands” and “sniping from the sidelines” during the key period.

“Of course, September’s referendum was the catalyst for the tsunami that swept Scotland on May 7," Rafferty wrote in an article yesterday on the Labour List website. "But far from Unite doing nothing, we tried desperately hard to persuade Labour to approach the referendum differently.”

“We argued strongly (literally pleading) to have a second question – offering Devo Max – on the ballot paper, only to be dismissed out of hand, with Scottish Labour displaying the arrogance of which it is so oft accused.

“Even with the devolution commission, where Labour had the chance to present a new offer to the voters beyond the referendum, we could not get a hearing. We argued for the party to strengthen its offer to Scotland. It wouldn’t, leaving Labour with the weakest extra-powers offer of any of the main parties.”

He added: “The second myth that needs busting surrounds Unite’s opposition to Jim Murphy’s leadership.

“Our disagreement was always purely on political grounds – not a crime in the Labour Party, at least not yet – for no matter his talents as a campaigner or his dedication to Scotland, Jim has been a powerful advocate for many years of the very ideology that caused the slow alienation of the Scottish working class from the party.

"Those drifting away included numbers of Unite’s members, the very people who ought to be Labour’s core support – so when they tell their union that they do not recognise Labour in the party before them, that they are losing heart with Labour, then we must listen.”

Rafferty spoke out weeks after his boss Len McCluskey made a number of high-profile interventions including blaming Scottish Labour for the General Election defeat.

The comment prompted a furious reaction from Murphy, who described McCluskey’s support as the “kiss of death” for any new Labour leader as he announced his resignation as leader a week after the party was left with just one MP in Scotland.

McCluskey hit back, suggesting the union could disaffiliate from the party if Labour did not elect the “correct leader” in the UK, amid growing support among its Scottish members for the SNP. The move would cost the party millions of pounds.

In yesterday’s article Rafferty also defended McCluskey’s stance, saying he was reflecting what the members of Unite in Scotland believe and was “doing what is expected of him by our members”.

He believed the political situation in Scotland would be very different currently had Unite’s voice had not fallen on deaf ears.

“DevoMax would have won comfortably in the referendum with Labour at the head of that campaign, able then to go into the General Election with the people’s faith intact," he said.

“The irony was that DevoMax-plus was given in desperation at the end by the Westminster elite. The SNP tide built still further, Labour’s positioning left them defenceless and Cameron pounced, playing the anti-Scottish card that propelled the voters’ late move to his party.

“There would have been no need for Better Together, no terrible taint left on Scottish Labour. The electricity and momentum of the Yes campaign would have been subdued. The SNP may have gained some seats on May 7, but Labour would have held on to many. Maybe we would now be talking about Prime Minister Miliband.”

Rafferty’s article is the latest analysis of where Scottish Labour went wrong.

It follows previous interventions by Alex Rowley, the Labour MSP for Cowdenbeath, and Duncan McNeil, the Labour MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, both of which were revealed by The National.

Both called for the party to make radical changes as it approaches the Holyrood elections next year.