Analysis: Lamont gets off lightly in her FMQ debut as Labour leader; others are not so fortunate

JOHANN Lamont was handed the usual congratulatory plaudits by her political opponents at First Minister’s Questions yesterday, following her election as Scottish Labour leader.

But even with the season of goodwill in full swing there was a feeling of a return to business as usual, now that all three main opposition parties at Holyrood have elected their new leaders.

But even though Mr Salmond graciously offered his good wishes to Ms Lamont, the final FMQs of 2011 saw the SNP leader clearly sending out the message that he was going to batter his opponents for some time to come at Holyrood.

There were harsh words for Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie, who Mr Salmond mercilessly taunted over critical Twitter postings from members of his own beleaguered party.

Mr Rennie handed the First Minister an early Christmas gift, when he started off his question by telling the SNP leader that he had had a “good year” – a statement that led to raucous cheers from the Nationalist benches.

Then there was a firecracker thrown by the First Minister at new Tory leader Ruth Davidson, who Mr Salmond accused of having a brass neck for lambasting the SNP over its unemployment record at the same time as the Tory-led coalition at Westminster presided over high unemployment at UK level.

Ms Lamont, on the other hand, appeared to escape rather lightly from Mr Salmond’s political attacks compared with her counterparts in the other opposition parties, with the SNP leader perhaps not wanting to appear too aggressive on the sensitive issue of child protection.

The Labour leader certainly performed competently during her First Minister’s Questions debut in her new role, opting to take a more issue-driven approach on the critical child protection issue as opposed to a ya-boo style of politics.

However, her laboured approach in asking several questions at the dispatch box, before getting round to asking for an inquiry into improving child protection in Scotland, marred her performance. At the same time, the heckling Ms Lamont faced from SNP backbenchers, as she criticised the government’s budget choices suggested she may have been on the right lines.