Dewar concedes Labour may not win overall majority in Scottish Parliament SNP woos business as Tories feud over seat

Meanwhile, beleaguered Scots Secretary Donald Dewar last night bowed to a rash of recent opinion polls and conceded that Labour may not win an overall majority in the new Scottish parliament.

Referring to one of a number of polls which have shown the nationalists breathing down the Government's neck in Scotland, he said that 10 seats off an overall majority would be acceptable to him.

The SNP has set up a hands-off grouping, Business for Scotland, to attract those from business, commerce and industry who are sympathetic to constitutional change and the prospect of independence.

Today the organisation, chaired by mining millionaire Dennis MacLeod, will publish the first edition of their own publication, to be published every two months and included as an insert into Scottish Business Insider magazine. The publication is designed to ''to encourage debate within the Scottish business community on constitutional change,'' and the group will this morning unveil their latest capture.

The Herald understands he is Tom Hamilton, chairman and chief executive of nursing home company Ashbourne, and European president of the Sun Healthcare group. He us a former board member of the Stakis group.

An enthusiastic supporter of the double-yes campaign, Mr Hamilton has now come out as a believer in independence in Europe, claiming that the London-based parties are ''hanging tenuously top a faded British concept and to a history which won't have any great relevance post the millennium.''

Business for Scotland director Samantha Barber said that Mr Hamilton, with extensive business experience at home and abroad, was an example of a certain kind of forward-looking executive who was unafraid of constitutional change.

She said: ''This reflects the general trend in recent opinion polls, embracing constitutional change as a positive prospect for business and showing that major players in the Scottish business community are as positive about the process of constitutional change as they are about Scotland business prospects.''

Although Business for Scotland is a free-standing organisation, it is a creature of the SNP. The party is trying to keep up the initiative gained from this week's Herald/System Three poll putting it five points ahead of Labour in the race for power in the Scottish

Parliament.

To try to keep the initiative, the SNP has revived a request, first made two months ago, that it should be given access to civil servants, along the lines of the Westminster convention that Opposition parties with a prospect of becoming a future Government are given an inside glimpse of the reins of power.

When the Nationalists first mooted this they got a non-committal response from Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar, who sent them away and told them to come back after the passage of the Scotland Bill.

When they renewed the request yesterday they were jumped on collectively by the other parties who branded them arrogant for presuming to be the official Opposition in Scotland on the strength of nothing more than opinion polls.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Jim Wallace said they were out of line, given that they had fewer MPs or councillors than his party, and he said that all parties should be given equal access to the corridors of power to enable them to formulate their policies.

Scottish Office Minister Brian Wilson said it was ''both surprising and arrogant'' that the SNP were pushing this line on the basis of mere opinion polls and he questioned whether, if granted, they would back off from such access in the event of them slipping back in the polls.

The SNP insisted that it was merely seeking what had been granted to Labour during the run-up to the last General Election. ''The practice of Opposition politicians receiving confidential briefings from the civil service, and working with them to make initial preparations for the implementation of their policies, is an accepted part of democratic politics in the UK,'' Mr Salmond insisted.

The Scots Secretary's statement last night indicates that whatever it says to the contrary the Government is laying some credence on the recent results.

''Can I also point out that the popularity of the Government has been recorded repeatedly at these polls so I think you have got to take it against that,'' Mr Dewar added. However, despite conceding there may be no overall majority in the Parliament, he drew the line at entering into any formal alliance with the Conservatives to stop the SNP introducing a referendum on independence.

Speaking on the BBC's Words with Wark programme, he said: ''Let me make it clear to you again that the poll, which you tell me is a disaster for the Labour Party let's wait and see where we are. I think we will have a majority Labour administration, but I may be wrong.''

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