SCOTTISH LibDem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has been accused of hypocrisy after he was spotted waving a Union flag during a late-night session at the party’s UK conference.
The Edinburgh Western MSP has previously said Scotland is a country “trapped between flags” and previously criticised the Tories and the SNP for their “fixation with national identity”.
He was spotted at the party’s annual conference in Bournemouth at the weekend clutching a British flag and a source said he had been singing Scotland’s unofficial national anthem Flower of Scotland.
The National’s source said the bash saw Scottish LibDem MPs accompany Cole-Hamilton on stage for a song and that the party ran until 4am.
Cole-Hamilton is an opponent of what he has described as the competing forms of nationalism in Scotland.
In an opinion piece for Holyrood magazine in August, the MSP wrote: “It is becoming inescapably clear to me that people are tired.
“They are tired of the clash of nationalisms on both sides of the border. Successive SNP and Conservative governments share the same divisiveness, the same fixation with national identity, the same stagnation.”
He also previously described Scotland as “trapped between flags” in a speech in which he suggested the “ancient nation” of an independent Scotland should “never exist again”.
Cole-Hamilton also said flags were an emotive issue while explaining in 2020 why he voted against the Scottish Parliament continuing to fly the EU flag after Brexit.
He warned: “If you want to ask how divisive the debate around flags over public buildings can be, just ask the good people of Belfast or Derry/Londonderry.”
His “antics” at the LibDem conference, where the party leadership was defeated in its opposition to housebuilding targets, drew criticism from Alba MP Neale Hanvey who said Cole-Hamilton was “blind to the irony of his own flag waving British nationalism”.
Hanvey said: "It would appear that the contradictions of Alex Cole-Hamilton and the incoherence of the LibDems knows no bounds.
"He had previously said that Scotland was a country ‘trapped between flags’ but is now happy to hoist the Union flag with all the gusto of someone attending the Last Night of the Proms.
“I wonder what the proud supporters of Scottish Home Rule and the liberal radical tradition of yesteryear would make of such antics.
“Mr Cole-Hamilton frequently uses nationalist as a pejorative against opponents, yet is blind to the irony of his own flag waving British nationalism which is wholly at odds with the vast majority of Scots whether they support independence or not."
A Scottish LibDem spokesperson said: "One of the benefits of being a liberal is not having to choose between your Scottish, British and European identities. You're free to take pride in all of them.
"Neale Hanvey should stop getting his underwear in a twist about a singsong at a late-night comedy event."
