“POLITICS and personalities” have soured relations between the Scottish and Westminster governments, a parliamentary committee has heard.

The Scottish affairs select committee took evidence from three former Labour secretaries of state for Scotland on Monday as it examined intergovernmental relations since devolution.

Former MP for Paisley & Renfrewshire South Douglas Alexander, told the hearing: “I struggle to identify a single area of Scottish public life that has got significantly better in recent years.

“The SNP has been in power for 16 years. That’s longer than the iPhone has been invented.

“So they’ve been in power a long time, and in that sense, I worry that a politics focused on identity, who we are, not delivery, what we do, has been the currency of Scottish politics for a long time.”

Baron Des Browne, the Kilmarnock & Loudoun MP from 1997 to 2010, dismissed any idea that growing tensions were structural, instead asserting any problems were driven by “politics and personalities.”

Baroness Helen Liddell also gave evidence to the committee.

One significant personality of Scottish politics, former SNP first minister Alex Salmond, appeared today morning to provide his take.

Mr Salmond told the committee that he had worked with three prime ministers but enjoyed the best relationship with Tory David Cameron.

Questioned on a recent rebuke from now Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron to current SNP First Minister Humza Yousaf for his meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey without Foreign Office officials present, Mr Salmond suggested there must be “more to it than meets the eye.”