Union leaders in Scotland repeated calls yesterday for a public inquiry into “disgraceful” blacklisting and demanded compensation for those affected by the practice.

Dundee Trades Union Council secretary Mike Arnott told Congress delegates yesterday it had given him “no slight amount of displeasure” to see construction firm Sir Robert McAlpine carrying out his hometown’s waterfront development — embroiled as it is in a high court case at the centre of the blacklisting affair.

The firm admitted in November that it had used its lists to “keep an eye” on individuals but denies that the data legally constituted a blacklist.