Scotsman editor Frank O’Donnell has waded into the battle for control of parent company Johnston Press and today hit back former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond’s attack on the paper.

Salmond revealed yesterday that he has has joined investor Christen Ager-Hannssen’s plot to unseat the current leadership of the regional press group. With a 20 per cent stake Ager-Hannsen is the largest single shareholder of Johnston Press and he wants to install Salmon as chairman.

Salmond told the Telegraph yesterday: “In terms of journalism, which is my area of interest, the standards are depressing across the group. That is not the fault of the people who are there it is because of all the people who have left .Unfortunately and for the first time in its 200-year history The Scotsman has become largely irrelevant.”