Hansard

It is my privilege to close the debate for the Government, and to encourage Parliament to reject this baseless motion from the Conservatives. At the heart of the debate, as many members have said, are two women who had the bravery and the courage to complain about behaviour that was unacceptable.

I say to Parliament honestly that they were let down by the Government. That has been acknowledged by the First Minister and by me on countless occasions; we accept that criticism and we have apologised for it. However, as Dr Alasdair Allan has just said, those women were also very badly let down by somebody who was a member of the committee leaking a misrepresentation of their evidence to a Sunday newspaper. That has added trauma upon trauma to those complainants, and whoever was responsible for it should consider the issues that Patrick Harvie raised in his contribution, because they are unfit to be a member of this Parliament.

The Government accepts that mistakes were made; we apologise for them and we will remedy them. There is much of substance in the committee report, which was published this morning, that presents a strong challenge to the Government’s procedures and processes, and the Government must accept that. Good work has been done there, and—as Jackie Baillie just said—the overwhelming majority of the report was delivered unanimously. I have indicated publicly that the Government will take forward the Laura Dunlop report, which was passed to us last week, along with the harassment committee inquiry report and the report by Mr Hamilton, in order to ensure that action is taken speedily to address the issues that need to be addressed. That will enable us to ensure that we have in place a policy framework that is fit for purpose to enable anyone who has the need to complain to be able to do so with confidence. Those will be the Government’s actions, and it will be for incoming ministers to take that work forward after 6 May.

I turn to the substance of the motion, and whether it is an appropriate motion for the Parliament to consider. On 2 March, Douglas Ross MP said:

“There is no longer any doubt that Nicola Sturgeon lied to the Scottish Parliament and broke the Ministerial Code on numerous counts.”

That was the day before the First Minister gave eight hours of testimony—before she had said a word to the parliamentary committee.

On the same day, Adam Tomkins, who is a member of this Parliament, tweeted:

“Sturgeon lied. We know that now. That’s why she must resign. She lied.”

Ruth Davidson talked about high standards. I have to say that I find that tweet the lowest standard I have ever seen in my Parliamentary life. My dear friend the First Minister talked about a toxic culture. If there was a toxic culture anywhere, Adam Tomkins, with a remark of that type, emptied a gallon of petrol on it.

Jackie Baillie talked a moment ago about how the committee arrived at a dispassionate conclusion with the votes of two Conservatives, one Labour member, one Liberal member and one independent member. On 12 October 2020, Murdo Fraser tweeted again that the FM had lied. How on earth can we be expected to take seriously the conclusions that were arrived at by five votes to four, at the last gasp of the committee process, when the committee had already agreed to these words:

“For all these reasons, the Committee believes that James Hamilton’s report is the most appropriate place to address the question of whether or not the First Minister has breached the Scottish Ministerial Code”?

Yesterday, Mr Hamilton gave his verdict:

“I am of the opinion that the First Minister did not breach the provisions of the Ministerial Code in respect of any of these matters.”

Mr Hamilton exonerated the First Minister yesterday on the committee’s test and I am delighted that that has been the case.

The First Minister and I have sat in close quarters for many years, as colleagues who have sometimes been in active disagreement about priorities, most of which, I seem to remember—I say this respectfully to the First Minister—have been about money. Throughout all my days of dealing with the First Minister, I have always known that I was dealing with an individual of integrity, character, responsibility and devotion to serving the people of this country. She has given every ounce of her energy to protect the people of this country over these past trying 12 months of Covid. She has done everything that she can to protect the public, and the last thing that she deserves is this grubby motion from the Conservatives. I invite Parliament to chuck it out at the first available opportunity.