Labour leader in Scotland Wendy Alexander receives too little cash to carry out her opposition duties, her party has claimed.

Ms Alexander receives an allowance of £22,466 at Holyrood compared to the £644,000 Tory leader David Cameron receives as leader of the opposition at Westminster, .

And while the Tories at Westminster will receive £3.8 million this year in an allowance scheme which gives cash to opposition parties in line with MP numbers, Labour at Holyrood will receive £247,000.

A plea for a rethink was made to a panel of Holyrood experts by Sarah Metcalfe, who was taken on five weeks ago as director of research for Labour at Holyrood.

She made the plea in a letter to Sir Alan Langlands, heading a team carrying out a review of the Holyrood allowances system.

"The Scottish leader's allowance of £22,466 is insufficient to meet even the full costs to an employer of a private secretary - never mind the public expectations of a leader's office in terms of interest in the party's approach to parliamentary business and associated policy stances," she said.