Scotland’s Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson quit yesterday following harsh criticism of his handling of the travel chaos caused by the winter cold snap.

Scotland’s main airports recently faced shutdowns and road and rail journeys were severely disrupted, with a large stretch of the motorway linking the main cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh completely closed.

Hundreds of motorists were stuck in their cars in freezing temperatures as the snow set in.

Stevenson has described the cold snap as the “worst snow and ice conditions since the 1960s” in Scotland.

He resigned with a letter to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond.

“Although we put in place significant efforts to tackle the event, I feel that I could have done much more to ensure that members of the public who were caught up in a difficult and frightening set of circumstances were better informed of the situation,” he wrote.