Salmond To Get Leading Role, Says SNP Chief

Alex Salmond is to be handed a "leading" and "very significant" role for the SNP at Westminster after the party's storming success in the General Election.

Minutes after being re-elected as the SNP’s Westminster leader, Angus Robertson MP told Sky News the former first minister would be back in the front line.

There is speculation that Mr Salmond, who captured the Aberdeenshire seat of Gordon from the Liberal Democrats, could become SNP spokesman on Europe.

That would thrust him into the forefront of the biggest political clashes over the next two years, in the run-up to the EU referendum in 2017 promised by David Cameron.

In his Sky News interview, Mr Robertson identified campaigning to remain in the EU as one of the top priorities for the SNP’s 56 MPs in the months ahead.

Mr Robertson was speaking after Mr Salmond and SNP deputy leader Stewart Hosie proposed his re-election at the first meeting of the party's MPs in the grand committee room in Westminster Hall.

"We have been announced as Westminster's third largest party - meaning we are better-placed to hold the UK government to account," said Mr Robertson

"Our MPs are committed to making Scotland's voice heard at every opportunity.

"Our MPs will continue to oppose the renewal of Trident, the Tories' unfair and punishing austerity agenda, and we will press for new powers for Scotland."

Other appointments announced after the meeting included Mr Hosie as deputy group leader, Eilidh Whiteford as secretary, and Pete Wishart and Kirsten Oswald, who defeated Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy in East Renfrewshire, as members of the group executive.

Mr Murphy’s gloom has deepened with a key ally of Gordon Brown calling for him to quit as leader.

Alex Rowley, MSP for Cowdenbeath in Mr Brown’s former constituency, also resigned from Labour’s front bench team in Scotland.

"I believe now, more than ever, that we in Scotland need a strong relevant Labour Party and we will not achieve this under your leadership - therefore I have no choice but to speak out," Mr Rowley wrote in a resignation letter to Mr Murphy.

Mr Cowley said the fact that Mr Murphy was not an MSP or a Westminster MP meant he was "not in an elected position holding a democratic mandate" and "will become an unhelpful distraction from the real issues that Scottish Labour must focus on".