TOUGH WEEK AT THE OFFICE AHEAD

MONDAY

THE report from James Hamilton QC is expected to be published early next week. This review was tasked specifically with examining whether or not the First Minister has broken the ministerial code.

As this review has been carried out by an independent figure, its findings will be less easily dismissed as the result of partisan politics.

SNP members have been taking to social media to suggest Hamilton’s investigation is the one that really matters – an attempt to downplay the Alex Salmond Inquiry.

TUESDAY

A CROSS-PARTY committee of MSPs – originally tasked with investigating how the Scottish Government managed to botch the handling of complaints made against Alex Salmond – will publish its final report at 8am.

Portions of the draft report were leaked to the media on Thursday night and suggested it would accuse Nicola Sturgeon of a potential breach of the ministerial code.

Members of the committee have voted along party lines throughout, with the exception of Andy Wightman who now sits as an independent after quitting the Greens. His vote is viewed as the casting one.

The SNP has slammed the committee as being partisan and effectively dismissed the report before it is even published.

WEDNESDAY

THE final day of the current Scottish Parliament session before it dissolves ahead of May’s election – and it won’t be quiet.

The Tories will bring a motion of no confidence in the First Minister which is likely to be backed by both Labour and the Lib Dems.

Who the Greens vote with could decide Sturgeon’s fate. Patrick Harvie’s party sided with the SNP when a separate vote of no confidence was brought against John Swinney this month.

The findings of the Hamilton report would likely have to be damning for the party to vote against the Nationalists this time around.

THURSDAY

THE election campaign proper begins. Even if Sturgeon survives a vote of no confidence comfortably, you can expect the Salmond saga to be raised again and again by her opponents as polling day nears.