McConnell loses face

Published on Monday 13 May 2002 01:00

JACK McConnell last night faced further embarrassment over the repercussions of Wendy Alexander’s sudden resignation as enterprise minister when it emerged that Jim Wallace, the Liberal Democrat leader, had turned down the chance to become her successor.

Sources in the Scottish Executive confirmed that, in the hours after Ms Alexander made her shock announcement, Mr McConnell, the First Minister, had discussed with Mr Wallace the possibility of undertaking a more fundamental shake-up of the Scottish cabinet.

That could have resulted in Mr Wallace, the Deputy First Minister, taking on at least part of Ms Alexander’s former brief of enterprise and lifelong learning and other changes involving Cathy Jamieson, the education minister, and Peter Peacock, deputy minister for finance and local government.

But Mr Wallace, who is also minister for justice, made it plain that he was not in favour of taking on any of the wide-ranging enterprise responsibilities. According to the sources, he agreed that Iain Gray, the former minister for social justice, should take on the job and that there was a need for stability in the cabinet which had been shaken by Ms Alexander’s sudden announcement that she was resigning.

The influence Mr Wallace was able to exert during the aftermath of her resignation last night provoked criticisms from Mr McConnell’s opponents who claimed that it undermined the First Minister’s position in the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition Executive.

It also brought speculation about the future of the coalition itself. A leading Liberal Democrat MSP, Donald Gorrie, made it plain that any failure by Labour to "deliver" on the introduction of proportional representation in local government would spell the end of the coalition.

"If there was no agreement on what was a matter of principle, then there was no prospect of the coalition being re-formed after the 2003 Holyrood elections," Mr Gorrie said.

Andrew Wilson, the SNP economy spokesman, said the chaos caused by Wendy Alexander’s resignation had now turned into farce. He said the fact Mr Gray was second choice as enterprise minister left him with very little credibility with the business community.

A Scottish Executive spokesman said the First Minister had discussed "other options" with Mr Wallace as the other party leader in the coalition. Both quickly agreed that Iain Gray would be "an outstanding appointment to the vacant portfolio".

It is understood one factor in moving Mr Wallace from his post of justice minister is concerns within the Executive that the Lib Dems are too "soft" on crime.

Moving Mr Wallace would also have opened the chance for a mini-reshuffle that could have involved surprise moves including moving Mr Gray from social justice to Mr Wallace’s justice portfolio; Ms Jamieson, from education to the social justice post and Mr Peacock, currently deputy minister for finance and local government, to education.

Labour concerns over the influence of the Liberal Democrats was underlined yesterday by Richard Leonard, chairman of the Scottish Labour Party. He warned it was time to be "less cosy" with the Lib Dems and that the coalition did not have universal support.

But his suggestion that this could mean calling a halt to the "creeping spread" of PR was greeted by Mr Gorrie’s warning that such an approach would mean there would be no prospect of a new coalition being formed in 2003.

Pro-PR Labour campaigners insisted that there was still strong support for electoral change.