Salmond enters row over closure-threatened school

Alex Salmond yesterday waded into the row over a closure-threatened primary school at the heart of the Dunfermline by-election campaign.

Mr Salmond and Ms Somerville met parents yesterday. Picture: PA

The First Minister, out and about with the SNP’s candidate Shirley-Anne Somerville, met parents at the town’s Pitcorthie Primary, subject of a consultation into potential closure.

Andrew Hutchison, whose daughter Adele, seven, is at the school, said the First Minister was sympathetic to parents’ concerns. He added: “He told us that any closure should only happen on educational grounds.”

But a Labour spokesman insisted that it was only Mr Salmond’s second visit to the constituency during the by- election campaign.

He added: “They had claimed that independence would be the third leg of their campaign, but they haven’t talked about it.”