DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now who’s to blame for the crisis in the Scottish Labour party?  Well the former leader, now Johann Lamont, who quit on Friday, said that some Labour MPs treated the party north of the border like ‘a branch office’.  Well Douglas Alexander is the Shadow Foreign Secretary, Labour’s election co-ordinator and senior Labour MP in Scotland and he joins me now  from his constituency in Paisley and a very good morning to you, Mr Alexander.

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER: Good morning, Dermot.

DM: Good morning.  Mr Alexander you must one of the dinosaurs that Johann Lamont has been talking about.  

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER: I’m a Renfrewshire Member of Parliament, I am a member of Scottish Labour and I’m part of the team that I believe can win the general election which is not just what we want here in Scotland but which I believe people are hungering for right across the United Kingdom.  Listen, these have been difficult days for Scottish Labour, nobody would deny that, there are lessons that need to be learned but I am absolutely convinced that Scottish Labour continues to offer the way forward not just for the community that I grew up in and that I now represent but also for the people of Scotland and the United Kingdom.

DM: Okay but what about specifically what Johann Lamont has been saying.  I mean you may be based in Westminster of course, you mention you are a Scottish MP, you were a big part of the Scottish independence referendum campaign which you ended up on the winning side, didn’t you elbow Johann Lamont out of that campaign, you wanted to look good, you wanted Ed Miliband to look good?  

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER: Dermot, that is simply not true. I  last had a conversation, a meeting with Johann in Scottish Labour’s offices on Friday morning, that reflected the approach that we have taken for many months here in Scotland, working as one team to defeat the Scottish National Party.  It is worth remembering amidst all of the [loss of sound] that actually Scottish Labour played a central part in delivering a decisive outcome in that Scottish referendum just over a few weeks ago.  We saw 55% of the Scottish people [loss of sound] the life’s work of Alex Salmond, the work of the Scottish National Party, an independent sovereign state.  Our challenge now is to regather, to regroup, to elect a new leader here in Scotland and then set an agenda that can help us secure victory not just in the general election in 2015 but in critical Scottish elections in 2016.  

DM: Okay, you mentioned a conversation you had very recently with Johann Lamont, was that you telling her that you were removing the General Secretary of Scottish Labour, Iain Price, without any consultation with her?

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER: No, it wasn’t actually, it was a conversation about the general election.  In terms of the internal workings of the Labour party, as I say my sense is that there are some lessons that need to be learned but we have a meeting of the Scottish Executive taking place here in Scotland today, that will be an opportunity to agree the process by which a new leader can be elected and I hope that can be the beginning of a broader process of reform and change within the Scottish Labour party so that we can be judged worthy as the government of this nation of Scotland in 2016 and we can play a key part in making sure we get rid of the Conservatives and get a Labour government back in at Westminster in 2015.

DM: Well viewers, Mr Alexander, so far will be confused as to whether you take on board any of the criticisms – and they are criticisms, you must admit that – from Johann Lamont.  Is there too much focus on Westminster, not on Holyrood, in Scottish Labour; have national Labour failed to recognise Scotland has changed forever; have you treated Scottish Labour as a branch office?  Can you answer any of those charge specifically?

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER: Okay, let me deal specifically with the allegations that you’ve levelled.  Firstly in relation to Scottish Labour, we had a review of the Scottish elections …

DM: They’re not my allegations, they’re Johann Lamont’s.  

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER: … just let me finish the point, Dermot, I’m happy to answer your questions – which established not a leader of Labour in the Scottish parliament which was the previous position but now a leader of Scottish Labour whose remit extends right across the party.  I think that was the right decision then, I continue to believe it’s the right decision today.  In relation to how do we focus the work of Scottish Labour, of course there are issues around leadership but let’s be honest, the challenge that we have faced and continue to face in Scotland extend beyond any one individual, whether an official or whether a leader, but how we can offer a compelling vision for Scotland’s future.  We are going to face a very immediate test in relation to the Smith Commission and how we can strengthen the devolution proposals that were put before the Scottish people at the time of the referendum from all of the main parties.  I hope that we will take a constructive, flexible and positive approach to the Smith Commission’s work as Scottish Labour in the weeks ahead.  Secondly, of course, we need to buttress constitutional change with social and economic change and that is why the incoming Scottish leader is going to have to set out thinking in relation to the very wide range of powers that the Holyrood parliament commands across Scotland and we’ve got to play a continuing and critical role in helping make sure we get rid of the Conservative government and get a Scottish Labour representation as part of that government in 2015.  So I’m the last person to deny that we face challenges, we are looking to elect a new leader, we’re looking to play a role in the general election and then secure victory also in the Scottish parliament elections.  I recognise there is work to be done but my sense is that that’s got to be the focus of our efforts in the months ahead.  

DM: One last attempt at a specific answer then, there is a charge that you sitting around the Shadow Cabinet table, you and your colleagues sitting around the Shadow Cabinet table, prevent Johann Lamont and Scottish Labour from a response on the so-called bedroom tax, the spare room subsidy, enormously unpopular of course in Scotland, you prevented Scottish Labour responding or having any position on that for a year while Ed Miliband made up his mind.  

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER: That’s simply not the case.  I’ve been campaigning against the bedroom tax for years and I was delighted that it was actually a member of Scottish Labour, in the Scottish parliament, Jackie Bailey MSP, working with Iain Grey MSP, who were able to bring a remedy to the bedroom tax here in Scotland so actually if you understand devolved politics, Scottish Labour took the lead in providing the remedy that was desperately needed.  It will take a UK Labour government to abolish the bedroom tax in every part of the United Kingdom.  

DM: Can I ask you as the Shadow Foreign Secretary your response today to seeing the Union flag coming down for the last time at Camp Bastion?  Have you got any worries about the future for Afghanistan, that it could go the way of Iraq?

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER: Well I have visited Camp Bastion many times and if you have had that privilege then of course the first thing that you would want to recognise is the service, the sacrifice and the contribution of so many British service personnel who have been through Camp Bastion.  With the official handover now to the US, to Camp Leatherneck, it is a moment to look back and reflect on that service and sacrifice, the challenge now in Afghanistan with the presidential election resolved, is to ensure that the Afghan security forces are able to step up as the international forces, including the British, step back.  There is much work to be done but much work has already been undertaken.  

DM: Can I ask you, I was talking to the Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, about that earlier today and we also were discussing Mr Cameron’s attempts to limit migration from within the European Union and Mr Fallon said he believes that some cities in the UK are being swamped, that they are under siege by foreign migrants.  Do you share that analysis?

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER: I think that speaks to the desperation of the Conservative party.  Of course you have got to be responsible always in the language that you use around issues of immigration.  Of course there are challenges, I recognise that, but I think that embodies part of the problem at the moment.  We have got a government that is spending more time negotiating with its back-benchers than negotiating with other European leaders. The truth is, if you are looking out the back window of your car all the time, you tend to crash the car and right now David Cameron is so fearful of internal challenge on the issue of immigration and external challenge electorally from UKIP that I think he is letting Britain down and we saw that in some of the intemperate comments this week in relation to the unacceptable demand by the European Union in relation to the budget.  Either David Cameron would [loss of sound] the House of Commons tomorrow and he will answer questions about when he knew, what he knew about this uplift in the European [loss of sound] … in politics, George Osborne allegedly didn’t tell him when this bill arrived and frankly I don't think anybody will be convinced by David Cameron’s anger or indeed Michael Fallon’s anger.  What we need is action on change and reform in Europe and alas that’s not what we are getting from this Conservative government.

DM: Let me ask you about that extra bill from the EU, isn’t who knew what when rather a red herring now?  The fact is the demand is there, you said yourself it is an unacceptable demand, why is Mr Cameron’s response intemperate then?  He’s right isn’t he?

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER: Well first of all the officials apparently knew that this was coming for some time, the Chancellor of the Exchequer knew this was coming, there’s a whole number of countries that have been affected, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy.  The Prime Minister should have been making common cause with those countries rather than being asleep at the switch and the fact that he is angry now is no consolation.  The responsibility now, even at this late hour, is to try and build alliances with other affected member states, these are estimates I understand from the outgoing Commission and the challenge will be to try and ensure a better approach is taken by the incoming Commission but it appears that there has been a significant waste of time and a significant wasted opportunity by the Prime Minister when he should have been looking out for Britain’s interests.  

DM: Mr Alexander, thank you very much indeed, the Shadow Foreign Secretary there in Paisley.