Alex Salmond blames Miliband for Labour ‘meltdown’

SCOTLAND’S First Minister Alex Salmond has accused Ed Miliband of being responsible for the “meltdown” of the Scottish Labour Party after the resignation of its leader Johann Lamont.

Mr Salmond called on the UK Labour leader to respond to Ms Lamonts claims that Scottish Labour was treated like a branch office by London. Picture: Hemedia

Mr Salmond called on the UK Labour leader to respond to Ms Lamont’s claims that Scottish Labour was treated like a “branch office” by London.

The Glasgow MSP quit her post with a stinging attack on Westminster colleagues who she said had made her position “untenable”.

Mr Salmond said: “It is clear that the fundamental nature of Labour’s leadership crisis in Scotland is caused by Ed Miliband and his coterie at Westminster. Labour’s meltdown in Scotland has been created by Labour in London.

“We have the extraordinary situation that an outgoing leader has admitted that Scottish Labour is just a ‘branch office’ controlled by London - in other words the Scottish Labour Party is a fiction.

“The person responsible for that, and for making Johann Lamont’s position ‘untenable’, as she herself put it, is Ed Miliband.

“Mr Miliband should be answering questions about why Labour in Scotland is run as an extension of his Westminster office, and why he has effectively forced the resignation of a Labour leader in Scotland.

“He should be making a statement about his responsibility for the meltdown of Labour in Scotland.”