Gray derides 'playground bully' Salmond

Published on Wednesday 27 August 2008 21:52

IAIN Gray, the Scottish Labour leadership hopeful, has taken off the gloves to launch a personal attack on Alex Salmond, in a bid to show he is the man to take on the First Minister.

Writing in The Scotsman ahead of tonight's crucial hustings in Glasgow, Mr Gray said Mr Salmond was a juvenile bully who used playground tactics.

His campaign team hopes this will show Mr Gray has the style and ability to tackle Mr Salmond, and answer critics who suggest he cannot stand up to the First Minister.

Mr Gray has claimed Scotland is "let down" by the First Minister's tactics in the parliamentary chamber.

"Scots who like his confident and ebullient approach to leadership would be shocked to see how readily that becomes graceless bluster and bullying," he said.

"Attacking opponents by coining nicknames for them is a childish tactic more suited to the playground than a parliament. To pretend to read from his manifesto and change the wording to pretend a promise was never made is to treat that parliament with contempt."

He also slammed Mr Salmond for calling Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, "a feartie from Fife" and former Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie a "tube".

He added: "Perhaps the strangest of Mr Salmond's juvenile jibes came when he responded to a book he did not like by pointing out that Scotland's patron saint was real, while England's was only a myth. Perhaps he was joking, but it sounded like 'My Dad is bigger than your Dad'."

He also said you could tell when the First Minister was telling a joke "because he was usually the first to laugh".

Mr Gray insisted the way to attack Mr Salmond was to concentrate on his poor grasp of detail and show how he "makes policy on the hoof".

He added: "We should confront the First Minister's playground politics, and confound him on the serious ground."

A source close to Mr Salmond described Mr Gray's words as "the height of silliness" and suggested the former finance minister should "lighten up".

He said: "The Labour Party are past masters at political insults – usually directed at each other.

"He should try telling us something about himself and the Labour Party for a change, rather than continually obsessing about the SNP.

"Mr Gray has just confirmed that Labour are now nothing more than the anti-SNP party. With nothing positive to say, no wonder they are trailing us by 19 points in the polls."