First Minister Alex Salmond has been called a �loud-mouthed hypocrite� in a bitter attack by the Scottish Labour Party.
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First Minister Alex Salmond has been called a "loud-mouthed hypocrite" in a bitter attack by the Scottish Labour Party over revelations that his chief economics adviser benefits from the short-selling practice that he claimed led to the demise of the Bank of Scotland.
The row gave a political twist to a feverish weekend of activity that saw the biggest rescue plan since the Great Depression being put together by the US government while in Britain Gordon Brown sought a populist kick by promising to clamp down on big City bonuses.
It was also revealed Salmond's chief economic adviser, Sir George Mathewson, who chairs the Scottish Government's Council of Economic Advisers, is also chair of Toscafund Asset Management, a £3.5bn hedge fund that short-sells shares in banks and finance companies.
Although his company has not benefited from the collapse of HBOS, Labour pounced with glee on the suggestion that Sir George might be one of Mr Salmond's "spivs and speculators".
Labour finance spokesman Andy Kerr accused the First Minister of "hypocrisy and ignorance," adding: "This revelation severely damages Mr Salmond's own view of himself as a sophisticated economist with top- notch business connections."
"He obviously had no idea of what was going on within his own team of economic advisers and no understanding of the real situation at HBOS. He is now just trying to mislead the people of Scotland for his own narrow political interests."
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is preparing legislation that will allow the US government to buy up hundreds of billions of dollars worth of "toxic" bank assets that have led to the current banking crisis and threatened world economies.
Lord Turner, the new chairman of the UK's Financial Services Authority, described the bail-out as a major step that could be a turning point in the world financial crisis.
In Scotland the row over Sir George's business interests, and Mr Salmond's assertion that an independent SNP government would have done more to protect HBOS, cast a shadow over an all-party effort to protect as many jobs as possible under the takeover by Lloyds TSB.
A meeting of all political parties and representatives of civic Scotland has been called in Edinburgh today to find common purpose to protect financial sector jobs and campaign for the key commercial functions of HBOS to be retained in Scotland.
"We're not talking about brass plates on doors here, we want lead office functions held in Scotland," said a spokesman for the First Minister.
Mr Salmond's team dismissed the Labour attacks but the opposition believe they have found a chink in the First Minister's armour in economics - an area is he an expert in.
After today's meeting Mr Salmond is due to have face-to-face talks with senior Lloyds TSB executives in Edinburgh
