Scottish Labour has launched a bid to get the future of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) debated at Holyrood.
Rhoda Grant MSP has lodged a motion “condemning” one of “the most retrograde steps” in the history of the region.
The Scottish Government provoked fury last week by confirming the dedicated board for HIE would be scrapped and replaced by a national panel overseeing several organisations.
Politicians from across the divide have now backed the Press and Journal’s campaign to keep the agency local.
But SNP member for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Kate Forbes, accused the Labour MSP and her Highland colleague David Stewart of “political opportunism” over the motion.
Ms Grant said: “The Highlands and Islands are made up of very different communities, with a variety of needs.
“They require an enterprise board that recognises and reflects this. With the best will in the world, a board sitting in Glasgow or Edinburgh cannot possibly understand the unique needs, culture and traditions of the Highlands and Islands.
“These decisions needed to be taken locally, by people with years of local knowledge.
“This is a badly thought through, wrong-headed decision which must be reversed. My motion has already been supported by every party, bar the SNP.”
A review last month recommended that a new single board should be set up to co-ordinate the work of HIE, Scottish Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council.
A consultation is due to be held as part of a second phase of the review.
Ms Forbes branded Ms Grant’s words “outlandish” and “opportunistic”, pointing to the fact that Labour’s Highland MSPs had previously supported a motion welcoming phase one of the review.
Ms Forbes said: “I wholeheartedly understand the desire to retain HIE’s distinctive and independent Highland focus but I am absolutely incredulous that a month after the report on HIE’s future was published, opposition MSPs have chosen political opportunism over hard facts.
“Worried people have asked me if HIE is being shut down, and once they’ve heard the facts, they wonder who is making the outlandish claims of HIE’s demise.
“Yes, there is an on-going review into HIE and other enterprise bodies, but only a short document on phase one has been issued and an additional consultation and the substance of the review is still to be published.”
But Orkney MSP Liam McArthur, who voted against the motion in support of phase one of the review, said: “Instead of deflecting and blaming everyone else for a decision that lies in the hands of their government, SNP politicians in the Highlands and Islands should be standing up for their constituents by publicly challenging their own ministers.”
