Split over pro-Union campaign chief

DIVISIONS have emerged in the pro-UK campaign, with a row brewing over who should lead it.

The Tory/Lib Dem coalition is looking to Labour to provide a figurehead to take on Alex Salmond and is privately pushing for former chancellor Alistair Darling to head the campaign to save the Union.

But while many senior Labour figures in Westminster also want Mr Darling to front the campaign, it is understood the party at Holyrood is pressing for new Scottish leader Johann Lamont to take the lead, a move some Scottish Labour MPs have dismissed. One party insider said: “That simply can’t happen. She is just not up to it.”

Other Labour figures believe having a single figure up against Mr Salmond would be a mistake and want a “more collegiate approach”.

But yesterday, momentum appeared to be growing for Mr Darling to lead the campaign.

One senior Labour figure said: “Alistair has the gravitas. He is the one figure who came out of the last government with his credibility intact, and his unflustered forensic style is perfect to take on Salmond.”

Former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell is also promoting Mr Darling as the campaign leader.

Meanwhile, the Tories appear to have settled on former Scottish leader Annabel Goldie to be their figurehead, as a deputy to Mr Darling, while the Lib Dems are still hoping ex-leader Charles Kennedy will join the triumvirate, although it is understood former Scottish leader Tavish Scott is also being considered.

Mr Scott said the issue of patriotism had to be addressed. “I’m fed up of the SNP getting away with branding me and most other Scots as ‘anti-Scottish’ simply because we do not believe in breaking up the United Kingdom,” he said.