Harman sorry over ‘ginger rodent’

Harriet Harman said Lib Dems were ‘political mutants’

Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman has launched a withering attack on the Liberal Democrats at her party’s Scottish conference.

Speaking to delegates in Oban, she branded Chief Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander a “ginger rodent”.

She also said the Lib Dems in Scotland had become “political mutants” after joining a coalition with Conservatives.

Ms Harman urged delegates to ensure Labour claimed victory at next May’s Holyrood election.

She said many people who voted Lib Dem in May “believed that they were a progressive anti-Tory party”.

Ms Harman said they “woke up to see Nick Clegg with David Cameron in the rose garden of Number 10”.

She said that there was “incredulity” at seeing Mr Alexander, an MP from the north of Scotland, becoming “the front-man for the Tory cuts”.

“Now, many of us in the Labour Party are conservationists – and we all love the red squirrel,” Ms Harman said.

“But there is one ginger rodent which we never want to see again in the Highlands – Danny Alexander.”

She said every Lib Dem MP and MSP had mutated into “something alien to Scotland – Tories”.

Ms Harman insisted Labour had learned the lessons of their general election defeat.

She said the Scottish Parliament election will send a signal to the UK government – it is the beginning of the end.

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