THE Conservatives have been accused of using the "politics of the gutter" as the war of words with Labour over the scandal-hit Co-op Bank and its disgraced former chairman Paul Flowers intensified.
Ed Miliband claimed David Cameron had resorted to desperate smear tactics in a bid to exploit Labour's links to Reverend Flowers, a Methodist minister.
But Grant Shapps, the Tory Chairman, continued the attack, branding the Labour leader's response "ludicrous" and he stepped up pressure on the Opposition over the damaging deal, which saw the Co-op merge with Britannia.
Mr Miliband said the Prime Minister had "hit a new low by trying to use the gross errors and misconduct of one man, Paul Flowers, to impugn the integrity of the entire Labour movement".
He added: "His main political strategy is now to sling as much mud as possible in the hope that some of it sticks. When he does so, he demeans his office."
Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary, said the Conservatives had returned to being the "nasty party", adding: "It is just smear and the politics of the gutter for the Tory Party to keep pushing this."
In 2011, Mr Flowers quit as a Labour councillor after pornography was found on his computer.
The 63-year-old has been bailed after being questioned by police officers "investigating allegations of drug supply offences".
Yesterday, Mr Shapps said Labour knew about the background to why Mr Flowers had quit the party, noting: "If Ed Miliband didn't know about that, then why didn't he know about that?"
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article