The Scottish Conservatives have lodged a motion of no confidence in Deputy First Minister John Swinney after the government missed a deadline to publish their legal advice for Alex Salmond’s judicial review.

A one-line motion has been submitted, stating that Parliament has no confidence in John Swinney because he has ignored two votes of the Scottish Parliament.

Leader Douglas Ross MP has called on opposition parties to unite for a third time to call for the legal advice to be published.

If the parliamentary bureau agrees, the vote of no confidence in John Swinney may take place on Tuesday led by the Conservative leader at Holyrood, Ruth Davidson MSP. The Conservatives say they hope that the legal advice will be released before the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s appearance at the meeting of the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints on Wednesday. 

The vote could then take place later in the week if opposition parties do not agree to that timetable.

Murdo Fraser MSP (who is also a member of the committee) has also submitted a parliamentary question asking if the government will release the legal advice, which would be taken tomorrow if the Presiding Officer selects it.

On Sunday, the cross-party inquiry committee made an appeal for the legal advice to be released.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross MP said: “Women were let down and more than £500,000 of taxpayers’ money was lost. 

“The public deserves to know what happened and the legal advice is crucial to uncovering what mistakes were made.

“We gave John Swinney one more opportunity to respect the will of the Scottish Parliament. He has failed to do so.

“Opposition parties have united twice already to demand the legal advice is released. We now call on them to do so a third time.

“We are still willing to withdraw this motion at any point, if the government respects the will of the Scottish Parliament and publishes the legal advice.”

The Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints was set up with this remit: “To consider and report on the actions of the First Minister, Scottish Government officials and special advisers in dealing with complaints about Alex Salmond, former First Minister, considered under the Scottish Government’s “Handling of harassment complaints involving current or former ministers” procedure and actions in relation to the Scottish Ministerial Code.”

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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
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