Nicola Sturgeon’s deputy faces vote of no confidence TODAY

Nicola Sturgeon‘s deputy is facing a dramatic vote of no confidence today as Scottish Tories urge MSPs to condemn the ‘stifling’ of a Holyrood probe into the Alex Salmond case.

Scots politicians will hold a debate and vote on John Swinney later amid fury at the refusal to release full legal advice Ms Sturgeon received about the government’s handling of complaints against Mr Salmond.

The First Minister has denied breaking the ministerial code by defying lawyers and continuing to fight a judicial review brought by her predecessor.  

He was later awarded more than £500,000 over the way harassment complaints were dealth with, and was subsequently cleared in a trial. 

Holyrood has twice voted to compel the Scottish Government to release the documents to a committee of inquiry.

Scots politicians will hold a debate and vote on John Swinney (left) later amid fury at the refusal to release full legal advice Nicola Sturgeon (right) received on the Alex Salmond case

Mr Salmond made a series of bombshell allegations as he gave evidence to a Holyrood committee last month

Mr Swinney released some of the legal advice, but has claimed that no notes were taken of two crucial meetings between Ms Sturgeon and legal counsel. 

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross today urged MSPs from across parties to join forces – but admitted that he expects Mr Swinney to survive.

‘At the moment it looks like the parties have decided – those who support independence – to gang up with each other to vote this down,’ he told Sky News.

‘That’s the Scottish Greens now just being an extension of the SNP, despite Scottish Greens and all opposition parties joining with the Scottish Conservatvies to twice vote for this legal advice to be released…

‘Across parties, Parliament has been stifled in its attempts to get to the bottom of this issue – a crucial issue – but it looks like the Greens are going to support the SNP… John Swinney will survive.’

Mr Ross said it is ‘stretching anyone’s credibility’ to say there are no notes of key meetings between Ms Sturgeon and legal counsel over the Salmond case.

The Scottish Greens have effectively destroyed hopes of removing Mr Swinney, by describing the vote as ‘opportunistic political theatre’.

Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said: ‘The Scottish Greens will always defend the integrity of the Scottish Parliament, and that is why we backed the call for John Swinney to release evidence that the harassment committee and parliament had asked for.

‘That evidence clearly showed the Scottish Government had failed the women who came forward, and this, rather than opportunistic political theatre, should be the focus.

‘The Tories called it a screeching U-turn last week, but this week they still want a political scalp to show for it.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross today urged MSPs from across parties to join forces – but admitted that he expects Mr Swinney to survive

Polls including this from Panelbase at the weekend have suggested that the Salmond row is damaging support for independence

A spokesman for Mr Swinney said the motion is about ‘grubby Tory politicking’, adding ‘they were always going to push this to a vote regardless of what information the committee received’.

He continued: ‘The Scottish Government has taken the exceptional step of publishing in full the key legal advice on this issue – something that no previous government in Scotland has done.

‘That means the committee has been given the legal advice it asked for, and the Tories’ claims to the contrary are baseless.

‘People across Scotland want their politicians to concentrate on recovery from the pandemic and the other crucial issues facing them, and they will be utterly unimpressed by the Tories’ blatant bid to put politics ahead of everything else.’

The Scottish Lib Dems have said they will vote in favour of the motion, with leader Willie Rennie saying Mr Swinney must be ‘reprimanded’ for his behaviour.