DES BROWNE, the Scottish and defence secretary, was under pressure this weekend to sack one of his top aides for describing Scotland as a “narrow, Presbyterian and racist” country. John McTernan, a special adviser to Browne and former Downing Street aide to Tony Blair, made the comments in a personal e-mail to a Labour politician.

The document was obtained by The Sunday Times under freedom of information legislation. McTernan, who was among those cleared of wrongdoing in the cash for honours affair, wrote to Karen Gillon, a Labour member of the Scottish parliament, before a visit to Sweden: “If you’ve not been to Sweden before, I think you’ll really like it – it’s the country Scotland would be if it wasn’t narrow, Presbyterian, racist etc. etc. Social democracy in action.”

Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister, said last night that the remarks showed Labour's true “contempt” for the Scottish people, and questioned why McTernan should keep his publicly funded £99,000-a-year job.

“It’s a remarkable insight into the attitudes of the special adviser that London put in charge of Labour’s election campaign last year,” he said.

“It shows why Labour lost the election. They seem to have developed a unique contempt for the Scottish people. But it’s not Scotland that is narrow; it’s the Labour party.”

The e-mail was written while McTernan was working as a policy adviser at the Scottish Arts Council in late 2002. Before that he worked as a special adviser to Henry McLeish, the former Labour first minister who was forced to stand down after a scandal involving his office expenses.

McTernan, 48, who was born in London but grew up in Edinburgh, said it was “ludicrous” to suggest the remarks affected his job.

“These comments are from private correspondence and are taken out of context,” he said.

“People who know me will make a judgment of me based on everything I say and feel about Scotland. I have always worked hard for the interests of Scotland.”

McTernan’s loyalty to New Labour and no-prisoners approach to politics earned him the nickname “the McTerminator”. In 2004 he wrote in a Sunday newspaper: “I have never found descriptions of national characteristics particularly persuasive; most are at such a high level of abstraction that they are transferable with ease from country to country.”

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