NEW Labour leader Keir Starmer was vowed to resolve Labour's long-running row over suspended Scottish councillors.
Starmer, the former head of England's Crown Prosecution Service, spoke out about the nine politicians suspended after defying Kezia Dugdale in 2017.
There is just one week to go until the third anniversary of the disciplinary action.
The nine were formally suspended from the party after entering into a coalition with the Tories to take charge of the administration of Aberdeen City Council in 2017.
Dugdale, who was then the Scottish Labour leader, said the party "simply will not stand for" doing any deal which could lead to further austerity.
A petition was launched in support of the group but the party has still not issued any decision on their future and officials have declined to comment on "ongoing internal investigations".
Today Starmer said the row "needs to be resolved", telling BBC Scotland: "It's been going on for far too long.
"One of the things that I said loud and clear in my leadership bid was that all disciplinary cases need to take place a lot more quickly.
"I'll be making sure that there are changes in place across all the disciplinary cases to ensure things are resolved much more quickly than they are at the moment."
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