Angry constituency members gathered in a room above a pub in Bathgate, Linlithgow at the weekend to confront Mr Tam Dalyell, the longest-serving Scottish Labour MP, threatening him with deselection if he did not tow the party line and support a Scottish parliament.
The British government's problems in Scotland stem from what one former councillor claims is the "viciousness" of the Labour Party and its councillors.
The number of serious disputes within the Scottish Labour Party is growing. Party officials in Mr Dalyell's constituency threatened him with deselection at the weekend. Two weeks ago in Paisley, the Labour MP for the area, Mr Gordon McMaster, committed suicide following claims of a whispering campaign against him that alleged he was gay and suffering from Aids.
As a result of Mr McMaster's rambling suicide note, addressed to his parents and to the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, the government chief whip has been ordered to set up a public inquiry into the affair. It opens later this week, but the finger of suspicion has already been pointed at two senior Labour MPs. Speaking from his constituency last night, Mr Dalyell said that if members of the party wanted to "join the motorway to a separate Scottish state and find that's not the destination they arrive at they should take the scales from their eyes".
Mr Dalyell denied he had broken a promise not to oppose a Scottish parliament and said he "would not under any circumstances" stand as an independent candidate if deselected.
His row with the constituency party echoes a wider debate with the Labour leadership over its plans for Scottish devolution, to which Mr Dalyell is opposed. He claimed it was "plain silly" for the Minister without Portfolio, Mr Peter Mandelson, to suggest Scotland's role in the United Kingdom would be strengthened by devolution when there were 129 Scottish MPs in the House of Commons. It was not conceivable, he said, that Scottish MPs would continue to have a major role in the Cabinet following devolution.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Scotland Forward, which is campaigning for a yes vote in next month's referendum for a Scottish parliament, said Mr Dalyell's comments were "not in tune with his constituency or Scotland as a whole".