Tom Griffin (London, OK): The ongoing saga over the fate of HBOS continues to highlight the new faultlines in Scottish politics. The recently appointed Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy is facing criticism after leaking details of talks with Jim Spowart about an alternative to the Downing Street-backed Lloyds-TSB takeover.
The Sunday Herald reports:
Alex Neil, the SNP MSP who has been campaigning for HBOS jobs to be saved, accused Murphy of trying to spike the second bid.
He said: "This is a resigning matter. Jim Murphy has shown that he can't really be trusted to keep confidential matters to himself. This is market-sensitive information. This is really underhand and mischievous behaviour to try and spike any chance of another bid."
David Mundell, the shadow Scottish secretary, said: "If there is any suggestion that any politician has got embroiled or broken any confidences then that is a very serious situation and must be investigated."
Tavish Scott, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said: "This is really dirty tricks to save Labour's neck. This is purely because Gordon Brown cannot be seen to change his mind after waving the Lloyds TSB and HBOS deal to go through."
This isn't the first occasion recently when Whitehall has disclosed information that the Scottish Government would have preferred to keep confidential. As the BBC's Martin Rosenbaum reported recently, news of changes to the proposed local income tax for Scotland first emerged from HM Revenue and Customs, albeit in response to a freedom of information request, rather than as a leak.
