Andrew Sharp, the SNP Westminster candidate, claimed: "Labour is treating the voters of East Lothian, and its own supporters, appallingly and arrogantly.

"Faced with defeat by the SNP in the General Election, Labour is now so frightened of us that they are trying to throw their sitting MP on the scrapheap, and just a couple of months before the election are seeking to parachute in a completely new candidate who has little chance of beating the SNP.

"Last year, East Lothian Labour party was suspended over their wish to sack Anne Moffat.

"Now, with defeat in the General Election a virtual certainty here, they have hit the panic button, and reversed their decision."

Pantomime

Michael Veitch, Scottish Conservative Westminster candidate, commented: "It appears that having lurched from one crisis to another, the East Lothian Labour Party is now in a state of total turmoil.

"They have well and truly burnt their bridges with the people of the county, who deserve much better than this sorry pantomine."

Stuart Ritchie, Liberal Democrat Westminster candidate, said: "The Labour Party know that the people of East Lothian were about to deliver their own vote of no confidence on both the current MP and the Westminster government.

"No amount of re-arranging the chairs on the Titanic is going to stop East Lothian Labour Party from their inevitable electoral defeat."

Full report in East Lothian News and Musselburgh News, January 29, 2010