AS the result of the EU referendum came in, Whitehall seemed to transform itself into an old Western movie – at least as far as the so called party of government was concerned. There was a brief appearance from the prime minister resigning and basically saying “it’s not my problem anymore” before he wandered out of Brushwood Gulch followed only by tumbleweed. In the meantime, “Missing” posters went up for the chancellor – has anyone seen this man? I don’t think any reward was being offered but there were concerns that he was loading up his six-shooter to fire off his threatened Brexit budget.

A key moment in the UK’s history and the key members of the UK Government were posted missing. People were trying to fathom out what happens next yet no one was there to answer their questions. The UK Government basically abandoned ship.

What an opportunity for the official opposition. Now was the time to attack. Now was the time to take Cameron to task. He gambled on the EU referendum to quell the disagreements in his party and he failed. The UK is now heading out of the European Union under his watch and nobody was there to tell the public what happens next.

Any semi-competent opposition would focus their guns on the Government and put them under pressure. As usual the Labour party (or more specifically the Parliamentary Labour Party) turned the gun on themselves and shot themselves in the foot.

Hilary Benn, the former shadow foreign secretary who summed up for Labour on the Syria vote by merely aping the Tory position – against the wishes of his party’s membership and leader, tried to remove Jeremy Corbyn and subsequently found himself sacked. Then came a line-up of Labour shadow cabinet ministers who, practically on the hour, resigned from their post. The public was left with two questions – what’s happening and why are these people behaving in this appalling manner?

Why take on their own leader when they had the ideal opportunity to show the country that they could show leadership in a time of crisis – especially when the Government had apparently left the building? With almost identical resignation letters – as if someone had written it all for them – they claimed that Labour could not win a snap election if Corbyn was still their leader. Well they’ve made sure Labour won’t win the next election irrespective of who their leader is. Why would anyone want to vote for these Labour MPs who have been champing at the bit to overturn their leadership election which saw Corbyn elected with around 60 per cent of the membership vote?

Of course there are now rumours that the synchronised resignation routine was actually orchestrated by a PR firm which employs a certain Mr Alastair Campbell. Whether that’s true or not, or whether this move was related to concerns that Corbyn would condemn Blair as a war criminal once the Chilcot Report, which will undoubtedly show the war in which most of those who have resigned voted for, is eventually published on Wednesday. Seems rather coincidental. We can only wait and see.

In contrast the only senior politician in the UK who stepped up to the plate and tried to make sense out of the situation was Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon. Not only did she pledge to fight to retain Scotland’s place in the EU, she made an impassioned plea to the many migrants who live and work in Scotland. She was the first politician to take on board the fears and concerns that these people were facing as migrants seemed to be targeted by the more extreme right-wing elements in our society. With the backing of the Scottish Parliament she went to Brussels to make sure leading politicians there were aware of Scotland’s position in the whole EU farce. Although you also have to give credit to Alyn Smith MEP for his rousing speech calling on his MEP colleagues not to let Scotland down. He deservedly received a standing ovation from fellow MEPs. Of course his speech was in complete contrast to the bitter ramblings of Nigel Farage, who treated his “victory” with all the deportment of a school bully. Mr Farage and his cronies however have been decidedly forgetful in their referendum pledge to invest £350 million in the NHS, with all mention of this wiped off the Leave campaign’s website.

We are now in a fast moving situation with developments happening every day. As the deadline for the Tory leadership election came closer we found out that the media darling of the Leave campaign unexpectedly withdrew from the race. Boris bottled it, he led the charge out of the EU, was too busy playing cricket to comment on the implications of the referendum result and simply bailed out on the chance to be prime minister where he could at least try to do something with the mess that he has helped to create.

The only politician within the UK who took the EU referendum in their stride was Nicola Sturgeon. When it was required she showed real leadership, she put forward her case to protect Scotland from the impact of the referendum and took time to re-assure EU nationals within our nation.

I’ve had numerous emails and messages from EU nationals worried about what will happen to them and I’ve been able to point them in the direction of Nicola’s speech. We should all be proud of the leadership that Nicola Sturgeon has shown in this situation.