Nicola Sturgeon: Douglas Ross discusses no confidence vote

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The Scottish Conservatives said a vote of no confidence in John Swinney is to go ahead “on Tuesday or Wednesday”. The Tories submitted a motion of no confidence in the Deputy First Minister last week over the Scottish Government’s refusal to hand over legal advice. Scottish Conservatives leader Douglas Ross said Mr Swinney’s “position has become untenable”.

The vote will be held on Tuesday or Wednesday subject to the decision of the parliamentary bureau, the party said.

Mr Ross said the Deputy First Minister “manipulated the flow of information”.

Speaking to BBC’s The Sunday Show, Mr Ross said: “We brought forward the vote of no confidence in John Swinney to ensure the committee looking into how the Scottish government handled harrassment claims against the former first minister could have all the evidence they needed.

“Two previous votes in Parliament, where opposition parties united behind the Scottish Conservative lead to that result being made in Parliament but the SNP ignored it.

“It was only under the threat of the Scottish Conservatives working with other Opposition parties an a threat of no confidence in John Swinney did we get a partial release of that vital evidence.

“The fact is there has been a drip, drip effect of more evidence being submitted and released by the Scottish government.

“Why won’t they just be upfront and honest and give us everything we need?”

A spokeswoman for the SNP said: “Just when you thought it wasn’t possible for the Scottish Tories to stoop any lower, Douglas Ross still manages.

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“The Tories are showing their true colours – this is nothing but a political game to them and instead of letting due process take place, they’d rather be hysterical and opportunistic.

“There have been thousands of documents handed over to the committee including legal documents. The FM spent an entire day at committee answering detailed questions and many more hours at FMQs. Every question has been answered.

“When are Boris Johnson, Priti Patel, Matt Hancock and others going to face even an iota of this kind of scrutiny over misleading Westminster and MPs from the parliament that Douglas Ross actually sits in?

“This is really desperate stuff from the Scottish Tories who believe there should be different rules for their political masters in London.”

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A Scottish Government spokesman said: “As the Deputy First Minister has made very clear, given the exceptional circumstances in which the integrity of the Government, Parliament and other key institutions were being challenged, we have taken unprecedented steps to provide the committee with the information it has requested in line with data protection, confidentiality and legal restrictions – and we have released a huge amount of documentation including legal advice documents.”

He added: “We have now disclosed all of the formal written advice notes received from external counsel during the judicial review, as well as a number of other relevant previously legally privileged documents

“As the Deputy First Minister has set out, these documents, taken in their entirety, utterly disprove the conspiracy theory that the Scottish Government delayed the concession of the judicial review or ignored advice from counsel.

“The information in the documents is consistent with information already shared with the committee in evidence.”

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