Scottish Referendums

Dewar Accused of Purge

Dewar: appointed new members yesterday

Anti-devolutionists have attacked Donald Dewar's decision to appoint new members to the Scottish Economic Council. The campaigners claim that the Scottish Secretary has thrown four fellow No, No campaigners off the quango and replaced them with more Labour-friendly representatives.

The four men Sir Matt Goodwin, Bill Hughes, Vera Weisfeld and Dan Wright have all supported the Think Twice campaign. The Conservative party chairman, Raymond Robertson, said last night "Labour are conducting a witch hunt against anyone who questions the Government's flawed devolution scheme."

Mr Dewar insists that the membership of the quango was altered in order to attract experienced business people from sectors such as finance, inward investment, telecommunications, business management and the media. These were areas which he felt were not represented, or under-represented, on the Council. Eight new members - including Gus Macdonald chairman of Scottish Media and Andrew Dewar-Durie of Allied Distillers - were appointed to replace the seven that were retired.

The Scottish Economic Council was first established in 1971 and was designed to provide advice to the Secretary of State on a range of economic issues. It currently has 32 members.