Keir Starmer has admitted that he forced former Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard to resign.
The UK Labour leader said that since he became leader he had taken “some pretty ruthless decisions . . . The Scottish leader was gone two years ago”.
Starmer also said that the party "would be at base camp rather than in a position to take advantage" of Nicola Sturgeon's resignation as first minister if he had not made Leonard resign.
Leonard had been leader of Scottish Labour for more than three years when he surprisingly resigned in January 2021.
He resigned just four months before the Scottish Parliament election after Starmer told him that he did not have confidence in his leadership.
Starmer said that removing Leonard, getting rid of general secretary Jennie Formby and barring former UK leader Jeremy Corbyn from standing was part of his plan to change the party.
He told The Times: "We knew what we had to do with the general secretary. Look at Scotland for example now Sturgeon has gone. We may have an opportunity to win votes.
"But frankly if we hadn't changed the leader in Scotland two years ago, we would be at base camp rather than in a position to take advantage of that."
Central Scotland MSP Leonard took over from Kezia Dugdale as Scottish Labour leader in November 2017, beating current leader Anas Sarwar.
Sarwar had the backing of more parliamentarians but Leonard won 56.7 per cent of the vote.
Yorkshire-born Leonard is a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and is on the left of the party.
He was criticised after the party performed poorly in the 2019 European election and the 2019 general election, where the party lost six of its seven seats.
Leonard faced calls to resign from Labour lord George Foulkes in 2020 after critic Jackie Baillie was elected as the party's deputy leader.
Some donors also refused to give the party money while Leonard was in charge.
A motion of no confidence against him was withdrawn before it reached a vote in September 2020.
But Leonard resigned just months later with the party third in the polls.
He was replaced by Sarwar, who beat Monica Lennon in the leadership contest.
The SNP has said this demonstrates how Scottish Labour is a "branch office" under Keir Starmer.
The party's Depute Westminster leader Mhairi Black said: “Keir Starmer has admitted what we've all known for a very long time - that Scottish Labour is nothing more than a branch office under Westminster control. When Keir Starmer says jump, Anas Sarwar asks how high.
“By boasting about sacking Richard Leonard, Starmer has once again revealed the contempt he holds for Scottish democracy and has shown that Anas Sarwar will continue to play to Westminster's tune no matter the disastrous consequences for Scotland.
"Sarwar has already been forced to ditch his principles and back the pro-Brexit Labour Party's opposition to Scotland rejoining the EU. That's despite more people than ever before in Scotland rejecting Brexit.
"And he's failed to voice opposition to Keir Starmer's Tory spending cuts, which would see damaging real-terms cuts to public services, public sector pay and social security.
“We cannot trust the pro-Brexit Labour party to stand up for the people of Scotland anymore than we can trust the Tories. Westminster control is holding Scotland back and the only way we can flourish is by becoming an independent country.”
Labour have been approached for comment.
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