One man band Salmond is damaging SNP, says Sillars

THE SNP recriminations over the Glenrothes by-election intensified last night when one of the country's most influential Nationalists cautioned against the party continuing to govern as a "one-man band".

Jim Sillars, the former SNP MP, claimed too much power had fallen to Alex Salmond, adding that the party leader did not like having people around who might disagree with him.

The accusations came as Nationalists continue their postmortem over the defeat in Fife. The party had expected to take the Glenrothes seat from Labour but saw their rivals hold it with a large majority and an increased share of the vote.

Sillars called for a rethink that would share more equally the power base within the SNP Government. "A one-man band is okay," he said. "But not when that band stops playing the tune that people want to hear. What has happened in the SNP is that power has shifted to the parliamentary group, and that means Alex. He has been able on his own to determine policy and party direction. Once power shifted, it shifted to Alex and that is a dangerous position for him to be in."

Sillars, who is still an SNP member despite past arguments with the leadership, added: "I don't think Alex's great strength is having people around him who may contradict him on occasion."

Criticism of the First Minister came from a more predictable source yesterday. Iain Gray, the Scottish Labour leader, said: "Glenrothes was the day that proved Alex Salmond's honeymoon is over and also the day Labour is fighting back, renewing our contract with the Scottish people.

"Alex Salmond is now a diminished figure. His erratic judgment during the banking crisis proved he is not a serious man for serious times."

While his position is in no doubt, Salmond's judgment has been questioned after he declared the SNP would take Glenrothes just 24 hours before the polls opened.

After the result came in, Salmond admitted he should have listened to warnings and gone on to launch a vigorous rebuttal strategy to counter an effective Labour attack highlighting an increase in care charges from £4 per week to £11 per hour.

The SNP leader's theory was that Labour's relentless pursuit of this issue and the SNP's failure to recognise it as a threat saw the SNP's lead evaporate in the final week of the campaign. Salmond's analysis, however, could be judged as too crude. Although Labour's tactic was effective, home care charges were not the whole story. Gordon Brown's performance in battling the turbulent economy and a strong local candidate contributed to the result.

Right up to the last minute on Thursday night,SNP tacticians believed they would take the seat. After all, their formidable machine had got out their vote (which did rise by 13%). What they had not accounted for was the surge for Labour.

There was no hiding the shock from the SNP as Angus Robertson, the SNP Westminster leader, and Peter Murrell, the party's chief executive, huddled nervously around a laptop as the votes were counted and it became clear that they had made a massive misjudgment.

Salmond, who had been almost ever-present in the constituency, was not there. He had retired to Bute House, where he watched Labour sweep to a 6,737 majority on his television. The SNP's misery was compounded on the same night when Labour took two council ward by-elections in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Earlier in the campaign, the SNP's internal information had suggested that the Brown bounce was not having an effect in Glenrothes, but the poll appears to have confirmed what has been mooted for weeks: that

Brown has been credited with protecting people's savings while the SNP has looked vulnerable in the face of global financial turbulence.

Another major asset for Labour was their candidate, Lindsay Roy, a personal friend of Brown. By his own admission, the former Kirkcaldy High School headteacher was a relative novice when it came to politics. But his performance on the doorsteps was impressive, where his ability to engage with ordinary voters was a huge asset to Labour.

On the other hand, Peter Grant, the SNP candidate, appeared to have been hampered by being the leader of Fife Council – the organisation associated with the home care charges.

Labour's jubilation at retaining Glenrothes will have been tempered yesterday by the publication of a poll showing David Cameron's Conservatives 13 points ahead of Labour. The ICM survey follows a string of polls in which Labour reduced the Conservative advantage to single figures.

The survey, which gave the Tories an 80-seat majority in the Commons, underlined the dangers of Brown calling a spring election, despite some Labour politicians urging him to go to the polls early.