Getting rid of the Scotland Office is a “job waiting to be done”, says Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael, dubbing the current Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy as a “tax-funded campaign manager for the Labour Party in Scotland.”

Carmichael, who is the Liberal Democrats’ election campaign director, also claimed Prime Minister Gordon Brown has delayed the implementation of the Calman Commission’s recommendations because he is too “controlling”.

In an interview with Holyrood magazine, Carmichael said that if his party got into power there would be no Scotland Office, asserting that he would instead head up a department of the Nations and Regions.

He continued: “I think there is a job to be done but having the Scotland Office is not the right way to do it because it should be the clearing house between government in Edinburgh and government in London but now it is just a focal point for conflict. Whereas a department that was headed up by whoever was dealing with Wales, London, Scotland and hopefully Northern Ireland, that would be a department that would do the job and take the heat out of it and represent them in the Cabinet and then back to the devolved governments. That would be a mature response to the constitutional settlement and not just having a job there to have a tax-funded campaign manager for the Labour party in Scotland.”

Asked about the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ position of opposing an independence referendum, he said he didn’t believe that there is a public appetite for a referendum and that the only people who have suggested one have done so for “tactical reasons to lance the SNP boil”.

However, as part of the committee that set up the Calman Commission, he says he does want to see more tax-raising powers for the Scottish Parliament and admits he is disappointed that Calman has not yet been implemented, laying the blame at Labour and in particular Gordon Brown’s doorstep.

“It has suffered from inertia and a lack of drive from Labour and specifically, the dead hand of the Treasury. It has been difficult for the Scotland Office to drive stuff through the Treasury, which has been brought kicking and screaming to this, and I am not yet persuaded or convinced that they are persuaded by this,” he said.

“I think Jim Murphy has done as well as anyone could do in that position but let’s be clear about one thing and that is the one person that drives things in that government is Gordon Brown and I have seen no sign of Gordon Brown wanting to drive it. It’s not just Gordon Brown, in fairness, but there is no enthusiasm on the Labour backbenchers for it, indeed a lot of hostility. I have always been sceptical about the Labour Party and constitutional reform and never really believed they were in favour of it from a first principles’ basis. It was more about the threat from the SNP. For the Labour Party, Calman was a much more pragmatic and now cynical calculation not because they thought it was right but because they thought it was what was necessary to stay in power.”

Another reason for the delay is Brown’s unwillingness to cede control, he argues.

“What I know of him is that he is a very controlling person and Calman is about giving up control in various significant areas, particularly in borrowing powers and giving up control to a parliament which is currently not controlled by his party so that is the nervousness that you get there. It’s about control.”

Carmichael also claims that the televised leader debates will prove to be a launchpad for party leader Nick Clegg, adding: “The emergence of Nick Clegg as a very substantial political figure will be the story of the general election.”