FORMER First Minister Alex Salmond has launched an attack on Prime Minister Theresa May and her government over the Windrush scandal, saying that it proves the Government is “rotten from the head down”.

Salmond’s views are contained in his latest exclusive video for The National’s website. It comes ahead of the final two shows of the Alex Salmond Unleashed tour in the Caird Hall in Dundee and the Principal Hotel in Edinburgh, on Friday and Saturday respectively. Former Catalan education minister Clara Ponsati will be his special guest.

WATCH: Our exclusive video diary with Alex Salmond

Salmond points out that Scotland has a different view on immigration.

“Over the last few years I have been much impressed by the willingness of communities in Scotland to defend people picked upon by the UK’s restrictive immigration policy,” he said.

“For example the Brain family from Dingwall found most of that Highland community supporting their just cause.

“Scotland is a country that understands the social consequences of emigration and is therefore more receptive to the economic benefits of immigration.

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“However, the inhumane treatment of the Windrush generation’s children is the first time in recent years that the UK Government have been reeling from a UK public outraged by a hard line on immigration.

“The whole callous and rotten nature of the system is being exposed to the full glare of scrutiny. Vainly the Prime Minister pretends it was all a horrible mistake. Pathetically the Home Secretary muses that her own officials have mislaid their common sense. Neither is true.

“The injustice meted out to the children of the Windrush generation was no accident. Nor was it a jobsworth’s over-enthusiasm by officials.

“The officials were following what they thought were their orders from the top to make life as unpleasant and difficult as possible for people who might somehow not be native.

“The boundary line between a hard line on immigration and a soft line on racism is a very narrow one and one which this government and this Prime Minister has crossed.

“Governments, like fish, rot from the head down.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also took May to task at Prime Minister’s questions yesterday. He said: “Can the PM send a clear message and tell us the hostile environment is over and that her bogus immigration targets that have driven this will be scrapped?”

May replied: “The Windrush generation are here legally but there are people who are in this country illegally.

“What the leader of the opposition is talking about is illegal immigration and what people up and down the country will tell him is that we should deal with illegal immigration.”

Home Secretary Amber Rudd later claimed she felt her “bitter regret” at failing to grasp the scale of the Windrush scandal sooner.

The Home Secretary, who has faced calls to resign over the crisis, told MPs she had become aware of there was a “potential issue” over the “past few months”.

But, she added: “I bitterly, deeply regret that I didn’t see it as more than individual cases that had gone wrong that needed addressing.

“I didn’t see it as a systemic issue until very recently.”

Rudd told the Commons Home Affairs committee that so far 7000 out of around 8000 records dating back to 2002 had been checked with no wrongful removals discovered so far.

A dedicated helpline set up last week has received more than 1300 calls about potential Windrush cases, with 91 appointments booked and 23 cases resolved so far.

The revelations have prompted fresh criticism of the Government’s “hostile environment” policy to tackle illegal immigration.

Emphasising that those affected by the Windrush affair were in the country legally, Rudd, who said she preferred the phrase “compliant environment”, insisted there is “nothing wrong” in trying to remove people who were here unlawfully.

Rudd also rejected suggestions that the Tories’ target to bring net migration below 100,000 had fuelled the Windrush saga.