Henry McLeish, the former Labour First Minister, has stepped into the cross-party row over minimum pricing for alcohol to describe his party's opposition to the move as “spurious”.

Mr McLeish's verdict will embarrass the Labour leadership at Holyrood, which so far has set its face against the proposal from the Nationalist government to introduce minimum pricing as part of a package to combat Scotland's crippling problem of alcohol abuse, said to be costing the country's economy £2.25 billion annually.

His move comes amid growing indications that Labour now wants to discuss with Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP minister who is now in charge of the anti-alcohol legislation, ways of finding common cause over the issue.

Labour, which has faced criticism for attacking the SNP measures without bringing forward any prescription of its own, wants to talk to Ms Sturgeon about the possibility of a mandatory code for retailers in Scotland that would see cheap drink promotions in shops and supermarkets effectively outlawed.

However, the main stumbling block to an SNP-Labour consensus still remains minimum pricing. Scottish ministers are thought to be attracted by a 40p per unit minimum price which would bring the price of a typical bottle of wine to around £4.

The drinks industry has launched a major campaign against the move and several legal experts have warned the Scottish government that minimum pricing may be illegal under EU competition laws. However, minimum pricing has attracted wide support from the medical profession, senior police officers and even pub managers.

Mr McLeish, writing in Holyrood magazine, has urged all parties to seize a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to turn Scotland in a new direction” by accepting minimum pricing.

The former First Minister describes Scotland's alcohol epidemic as an “embarrassment” on the world stage and adds that it is a threat to “our status as a civilised country”.

He added: “Over-consumption and abuse of alcohol in Scotland is not a minority pastime. Self-regulation by the drinks industry is not good for a nation that has to pick up the pieces and fix the social wreckage.”

Mr McLeish's support was welcomed by the Nationalists. Michael Matheson, a backbench SNP MSP, said: “Henry McLeish has added his voice to the increasing consensus for action to tackle Scotland's alcohol problem.

“It is time for all parties to look at the evidence, to listen to the experts and not the special interest pleading of supermarkets.”

As things stand, the minority SNP administration does not have sufficient support among opposition parties to force the legislative package, containing minimum pricing, through Parliament.

Ministers have already watered down a proposal to impose a Scotland-wide ban on under-21s buying drink from off-sales and, instead, have made any ban a decision for individual local licensing boards.

However, the problem for the opposition parties, including Labour, is that they could stand accused of not taking the alcohol issue seriously enough by voting the proposed measures down.

Labour sources dismissed the suggestion last night that the party might be prepared to drop its opposition to minimum pricing in exchange for a commitment from the SNP government to include a mandatory code for retailers in the legislation, which would parallel the existing legilsation banning “happy hours” and similar irresponsible drinks promotions, saying that it wanted the SNP to look at the Labour proposal on its own merits.

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