No Scots bid from Darling

FORMER Chancellor Alistair Darling has ruled out helping his party’s Scottish comeback by running for election to the Scottish Parliament, it was reported today.

When asked if he would consider running for Holyrood, the Edinburgh South West MP said: “I don’t think so. I don’t think at the age of 60 I’m going to start saying I’m going to stand for somewhere else.”

Mr Darling added that the next leader of the Scottish Labour Party had to “command the respect” of the country and warned that there was a grave risk that First Minister Alex Salmond would be allowed to “sleepwalk Scotland into separation” without an effective opposition.