Robbie Coltrane falters in delivering party line

Labour MPs, who had been assembled by the party for a carefully-staged press launch of their latest policy document, were aghast as the actor came out with his views in interviews afterwards. Mr Coltrane said he was backing Labour as the party for "the unrepresented and unpowerful" and the only party that could deliver a Scottish parliament within two years. Asked whether he favoured independence, he said: "It's a very complicated issue. I would think, probably, eventually I would like to see independence but only an independent Labour Scotland. I think this is the way to go." Pressed by reporters, he stressed that he fully supported the Labour Party and its policies and was expressing a personal view on independence.

"It would have to be terribly carefully considered. There are all sorts of advantages to being part of the United Kingdom and it would be foolish to throw it away immediately." Later the Labour Party rushed out a statement from a mortified Mr Coltrane saying: "I have no time for the nationalists - all they can do is split the vote for home rule and let the Tories in." Labour leaders denied they were upset. The shadow Scottish secretary, Donald Dewar, said: "We are not in any way embarrassed. I think you are trying your very best to make an issue. The point is Robbie Coltrane is here because he knows what Labour Party policy is and he supports it." Mr Dewar had been paraded into a suite in Glasgow's Concert Hall by Mr Coltrane to the stirring music of Mendelssohn's Hebridean Overture, accompanied by seven ordinary voters who explained why they were backing Labour. Mr Dewar said that Scotland could make the difference at the election between a Conservative or a Labour victory: "There are those who want Scotland to opt out, to duck out of this crucial role, but make no mistake, a vote for 'promise everything, deliver nothing' nationalists is a vote to keep the 'do nothing, listen to no-one' Tories in power." Peter Hastie, from Corstorphine, Edinburgh, a pensions executive, said: "We need a government that will rebuild the Scottish economy.

With Labour's Scottish parliament, you get a parliament that will have the power to make a big difference, the power to back exporters, to invest in skills and training to get people back to work. "That would make a big difference to me, because with more people in work our business would make more money and guarantees my job." The Scottish Secretary, Ian Lang said that Labour's "tired old song is badly out of tune. The party is over for Labour in Scotland. Their plans for a tax-raising parliament in Scotland have been unable to withstand close scrutiny."