No confidence vote looms over Salmond legal advice

The Scottish Conservatives will this week lodge a motion of no confidence in Deputy First Minister John Swinney over the publication of legal advice.

On two occasions, MSPS have voted to compel the Scottish Government to produce legal advice taken as part of the legal challenge brought by Alex Salmond over its harassment complaints procedure, but ministers have so far not handed the advice over.

Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Tories, said the issue was “not about politics” but “about getting the truth”.

His party has set a 24-hour deadline for Mr Swinney, who is heading the government response to the Holyrood inquiry, to release the advice.

The Scottish Conservatives will this week lodge a motion of no confidence in John Swinney unless the Scottish Government makes a U-turn over its repeated refusal to release its legal advice over Alex Salmond’s judicial review.

Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Tories, accused the deputy first minister of ignoring the Scottish Parliament and withholding evidence concerning the government’s unlawful handling sexual harassment complaints against Mr Salmond.

Mr Ross said the issue was “not about politics” but “about getting the truth,” and stressed that “without the evidence, that won’t happen.”

The Scottish Parliament has twice voted for the government to release the legal advice, but the committee tasked with scrutinising the government’s handling of the complaints has only received some of the evidence.

Mr Swinney, who is heading the government response to the Holyrood inquiry, has said that legal advice is generally not released in order to ensure that full and frank advice will be provided, without any concerns that it might be made public in future.

He previously told Linda Fabiani, the convener of the harassment committee, that he was keen to find a "practical way" which would allow the advice to be handed over to MSPS, but no such arrangement has been put in place.

The threat of the motion will intensify pressure on Mr Swinney to respect the outcome of the two cross-party parliamentary motions, particularly given the fact the SNP does not command a majority at Holyrood.

The Scottish Conservatives have set a deadline of 24 hours for Mr Swinney to release the advice. Mr Ross said the information was crucial to “uncovering the specific mistakes that lost more than £500,000 of taxpayers’ money and let the women at the heart of this investigation down.”

Mr Ross said the move gave the government "one last chance" to release the advice, and that he would "gladly" rescind the threat of a motion should it do so.

He said: "Twice, opposition parties united to call for the legal advice to be released. The cross-party Holyrood committee have pleaded with the government to produce it.

"The government said they would listen but they clearly have not.”

Alex Cole-hamilton, the Scottish Lib Dem MSP, and a member of the harassment committee, and Willie Rennie, the party’s leader, have said they will support the Tory motion, and accused Mr Swinney of standing “in contempt of parliament.”

Mr Rennie said: "There is a simple way for John Swinney to avoid another no confidence vote and that is to release the legal advice as parliament has twice made very clear it expects him to do.

"The Scottish Government have gone out of their way to obstruct the investigation into their handling of some very serious allegations. This displays contempt for our parliament and a casual disregard for all those who have raised concerns or are considering whether to do so in the future."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "The Government has provided the committee with detailed evidence on its legal position at all the key points of the Judicial Review including the Open Record of the pleadings

and over two-and-a-half hours of oral evidence by the Lord Advocate.

"This is in addition to the unprecedented step the Scottish Government took in giving the committee access to a detailed summary of the legal advice on a confidential basis.

"If there is a need to further information, the Scottish Government stands ready to discuss that with the committee."