First Minister challenged over ‘litany of failures’ by Labour MSP

The First Minister was challenged on a “litany of failures, errors in the investigation, errors in the judicial review and errors in the supply of information”, as she was asked why no-one had resigned over the Scottish Government’s unlawful handling of the complaints against Alex Salmond.

In the most heated exchange of the day at the Holyrood committee on Wednesday where Nicola Sturgeon is giving evidence on how the government lost in the courts, Scottish Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said she had never felt as frustrated in 22 years of being on parliamentary committees “as with this one”.

"We’ ve waited for information from the Scottish Government, the stuff we’ve received has been partial and late,” Ms Baillie said. "The complaints handling phase was due in August, we received it in december. the legal advice has taken two votes in Parliament and a motion of no confidence in John Swinney before we saw it last night at 6pm.

“And there’s information missing… it’s not been given to us. do you understand the frustration of the committee that it looks as if the government doesn’t want to give us critical information?"

Ms Sturgeon said she also felt frustration, but that some of the information demanded was “not down to the government” to release. She said: "I would take issue with the characterisation of delay and prevarication. There have been really complex issues behind the provisionof some of this information … the legal constraints in place. I think the government has fully co-operated with the committee. Every time there has been information, a lot of mystique and intrigue has been built up around it. Once it’s published, it’s found that’s not the case.