SNP deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon has attacked what she described as a "culture of secrecy" within the Labour party in Glasgow.
Speaking at the party's spring conference in Aviemore, Ms Sturgeon said that a "political cloud" hung over the city, and that the problems at Scotland's largest local authority went "much deeper" than those of its former leader Steven Purcell.
Ms Sturgeon, the MSP for Govan, hit out at Glasgow City Council in the wake of the sudden resignation of Mr Purcell earlier this month. He stood down from the post and also quit as a Labour councillor after struggling with "stress and exhaustion".
Mr Purcell, who had been seen as a rising star within the Labour Party, was treated at a private hospital specialising in drug and alcohol dependency.
Ms Sturgeon said there was a "political cloud" hanging over the "great city" of Glasgow. But she added: "It is not because of the personal circumstances of an individual. It goes much, much deeper than that.
"It is because of a culture, a Labour culture of secrecy, a Labour fear of transparency."
She told delegates that council functions had been "hived off" to arms-length bodies, meaning that accountability to the public was "virtually non-existent".
She also claimed: "It often seems like the interests of the few are given more importance than those of the people who provide and use the services of the council. Concerns of opposition councillors and trade unions are arrogantly brushed aside."
Improving health
Ms Sturgeon made the attack in her speech to the SNP spring conference in Aviemore - which also included an announcement on health checks and more action aimed at curbing drinking.
Universal health checks will be introduced for all Scots aged 40-74 from the autumn.
The first steps will be to identify the health boards who will take forward the pilot of the service, with the first patients receiving the checks in 2011.
Ms Sturgeon highlighted some of the achievements the NHS has made under the SNP government - such as meeting cancer waiting times and abolishing so-called hidden waiting lists.
But she also told the conference the health service "faces big challenges in the years ahead", adding that it needs to "do more to prevent ill health as well as cure it".
To help tackle Scotland's alcohol problem, she pledged more intervention from health workers to try to persuade people to cut down drinking levels. She promised there would be 60,000 of these "brief interventions" this year, with patients questioned about their drinking when they go to see their GP or in hospital.
The health secretary said these were a "tried and tested way of helping people address problems before they become too serious".
