The Scottish Deputy First Minister John Swinney survived the vote proposed by the Conservatives with MSPs overturning the motion 65 to 57.
It comes due to a dispute over the release of legal advice by Swinney to an inquiry committee. This was in relation to the legal inquires against the Scottish Government by Alex Salmond.
It had been agreed that Swinney would issue prioritized information of the legal battle with Salmond. This was primarily due to the fact that all oppositions parties agreed that they would back a no confidence vote against Swinney if he did not hand over the relevant papers.
However, the Conservatives were not fully convinced that all the content requested had been provided, and a vote was carried out regardless.
Swinney insisted the motion was “entirely baseless”, and protested that the entire cause of the inquiry was performative, in timing with the Scottish election scheduled in May.
The rejection of the motion against Swinney would not have come without the essential support of the Green Party. Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said in a statement “The shallow game of winning political scalps should not be anyone’s priority and the Greens will have no part in it”
This all comes in tandem with the ongoing legal enquiries into the mishandling of the investigation into sexual assault allegations made against Mr Salmond in 2018.
Ruth Davidson claims that the inquiry committee was “hampered at every turn from receiving even basic information” over the probe launched by SNP two years ago.
With the Scottish election only weeks away, Harvie claimed the inquiry had “descended into political farce” and was a case of “shabby political theatre”.
Image Credit: Jane Barlow/PA/The Telegraph
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