Speculation has begun over who will replace Johann Lamont after the Scottish Labour Party leader quit with an attack on Westminster colleagues who made her position “untenable”.

Ms Lamont accused some in the UK party of treating Scotland as a “branch office” and called for great­er autonomy north of the border.

Labour former first minister Lord McConnell said UK party leader Ed Miliband had questions to answer, while his predecessor Henry McLeish said the party faced a pro­blem of ‘’historic, epic proportions’’.

First minister-in-waiting Nicola Sturgeon said the resignation revealed Labour to be in “complete meltdown” in Scotland.

Scotland has chosen to remain in partnership with our neighbours in the UK. But Scotland is distinct and colleagues must recognise that

Former prime minister Gordon Brown MP, Jim Murphy MP and interim leader Anas Sarwar MP have all been linked to the leadership role.

Michael Connarty, Labour MP for Linlithgow and East Falkirk, has backed Mr Brown for the job as ‘’a towering figure’’ who was ‘’speaking the language of the people of Scotland’’.

He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: ‘’We should be talking about Gordon and Gordon alone. I’ll be seeking him out and so will other people.’’

Mr Murphy had previously ruled himself out of mounting a challenge to Ms Lamont and urged the party to unite around her last weekend.

Mr Sarwar praised the former leader’s “selflessness” in standing down, adding: ‘’The Scottish Labour Party will now consider and set out in due course the process for electing a new leader as we continue to work to return a Labour government at the general election in 2015 and in the Scottish Parliament elections in 2016.”

Glasgow MSP Ms Lamont had pledged to lead Labour into the 2016 Holyrood elections despite questions over her political future in the wake of last month’s Scottish independence referendum, in which large numbers of Labour supporters voted to leave the UK.

Announcing her resignation, Ms Lamont told the Daily Record: ‘’Just as the SNP must embrace that devolution is the settled will of the Scottish people, the Labour Party must recognise that the Scottish party has to be autonomous and not just a branch office of a party based in London.

‘’Scotland has chosen to remain in partnership with our neighbours in the UK. But Scotland is distinct and colleagues must recognise that.

‘’There is a danger of Scottish politics being between two sets of dinosaurs – the Nationalists who can’t accept they were rejected by the people, and some colleagues at Westminster who think nothing has changed.’’

She attacked those who had attempted to undermine her position as she sought to reform the party in Scotland.

Moves to replace Scottish Labour general secretary Ian Price without her consultation appear to have been the final straw.

‘’Any leader whose general secretary can be removed by London without any consultation is in an untenable position. That has to change.

‘’The Scottish Labour Party should work as equal partners with the UK party, just as Scotland is an equal partner in the United Kingdom. Scotland has chosen home rule – not London rule.’’

Ms Lamont said some Westminster colleagues “do not understand the politics they are facing” in Scotland after the referendum.

She was standing down “so that debate our country demands can take place’’.

Ms Lamont said she was proud of what had been achieved under her leadership, particularly the No vote in the referendum.

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