Labour and Tories in turmoil as leadership battles loom after failure in referendum

Both the Conservatives and Labour are in leadership turmoil at Westminster as a result of the referendum result.

Prime Minister David Cameron resigned on Friday morning, and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has faced a string of shadow cabinet resignations and pressure from his party.

MSP Elaine Smith lent her renewed backing to Mr Corbyn, who visited Coatbridge two months ago to support her Holyrood election campaign.

She described the internal party battle as “very disappointing” and said: “I fully support Jeremy Corbyn and hope that he’ll remain leader.

“He’s brought a breath of fresh air to the party with his campaign for the leadership, in which he got 60 per cent of the vote — a lot of that was inspired by the new-style politics.

“Labour has an open goal on the Conservatives and need to focus on starting to pick up some of this.”

Conservative regional list member Margaret Mitchell said Mr Cameron had made “the right decision” in stepping down.

She said: “He backed the position of Remain and I think he would have found it very difficult to go in with the authority he would have liked to change things.

“I’m not going to speculate just now on who might be the next party leader, but there are certainly some really good candidates.”

Party colleague Graham Simpson said he doesn’t yet have a preferred candidate, saying: “I haven’t got anyone in mind. We’ll see which two it is and hear what they’ve got to say, then can make a choice.

“We need to allow the new Prime Minister to come in and then start the negotiation process.”

Going and gone? Corbyn and Cameron