New depths were plumbed yesterday in the increasingly bitter relationship between Aberdeen’s Labour council leaders and the SNP Government in Edinburgh.
City finance convener Willie Young has tabled a motion to a full council meeting tomorrow calling for a ban on all ministers from local authority property such as schools, parks, offices and community centres.
Last night, Labour’s Conservative coalition partners said they would back the move, which Mr Young claimed was designed to prove the administration will not be “bullied” by Alex Salmond.
The first minister has been highly critical of what he has described as the “kamikaze” leadership in the Granite City.
Mr Salmond did not comment yesterday, but SNP local government minister Derek Mackay and Aberdeen group chief Callum McCaig said the latest development was a “new low”.
Liberal Democrat city group leader Ian Yuill said the actions of the Labour group were “childish and immature”.
Mr Young, the Labour group secretary, insisted it was important for the administration to take a stand.
Relations between the Labour group and the SNP have been problematic since the 2012 local elections, but deteriorated further during the Donside by-election, when city councillors called for an inquiry into claims Mr Salmond had made an unannounced visit to a city primary school. Mr Young said: “Alex Salmond has continually criticised Aberdeen City Council, he has tried to bully us, called us a kamikaze council.
“He had an opportunity to report himself to the Standards Commission over his behaviour during the Donside by-election, but has not done so.
“What do you do with a bully? You have to stand up to people.”
Tory group leader Fraser Forsyth said he would back the motion, but admitted there were “more important” issues to focus on.
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