A senior Highland councillor has launched a blistering attack on Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill and urged him to resign.
David Alston said he “fully supported” former Solicitor General for Scotland Lord McCluskey, who said the minister should step down over the routine arming of police and other issues.
The leader of Highland Council’s Liberal Democrat group said “alarm bells should be ringing very loudly” over the justice secretary’s conduct.
Lord McCluskey, a retired High Court judge, claimed Mr MacAskill was guilty of “unacceptable conduct” over matters including a bid to scrap corroboration and an attack on the Supreme Court in London after its judges quashed the conviction of Moray wife killer Nat Fraser.
And he said the routine arming of police in places like the Highlands was an example of “secretive decision making, with a minister and police chief quietly agreeing policy away from public scrutiny”.
But Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch SNP MSP Dave Thompson claimed Mr Alston’s attack was designed to “divert attention” away from “crumbling” Lib Dem support of the No campaign.
He pointed out that former Lib Dem Highland Council leader Dr Michael Foxley and other party members recently announced they would be voting “yes”.
Mr Alston, speaking as leader of the council’s Lib Dem group, said: “I fully support the call for Kenny MacAskill’s resignation.
“When he created Police Scotland, he not only got the single police force he wanted but he then hijacked the appointment process and pushed through the choice of Stephen House as chief constable before the Scottish Police Authority was in place.
“This was a flagrant breach of the justice secretary’s repeated assurances to parliament that the new chief constable would be chosen by the police authority and not by ministers.
“Earlier this year he described those who opposed his plans to abolish the law of corroboration as part of a unionist conspiracy.”
Mr Alston is also the deputy leader of Highland Council.
Mr Thompson said: “The Lib Dems do not want political interference of the police but that appears to be what David Alston is calling for, rather than waiting for the outcome of two reviews into the arming police issue.”
Mr MacAskill declined to comment.