Hansard

We have been down the road of calling for a vote of no confidence in ministers before. In the past, we have called for people in charge to step down because of catastrophic exam results or the misuse of public money. However, today’s vote of confidence is darker and graver. It is about something that is potentially widespread and that affects thousands of young women. It is about vulnerable young girls as young as 13 being gang raped and abused and teenagers being trafficked, drugged, plied with alcohol and waking up naked and bruised on a mattress with no recollection of the night before.

There is a material difference in today’s vote of no confidence. In this case, the Parliament has been misled by the justice secretary, who is responsible for safeguarding victims. Survivors of grooming gangs have been let down unforgivably. It is despicable.

The First Minister did not address the substance of our motion. Instead, he read out the justice secretary’s CV, diverting from the substance. It was 80 per cent deflection, 10 per cent spin and perhaps 10 per cent job reference. Our Scottish Conservatives party leader has set out the timeline that demonstrates with clarity that the justice secretary has misled Parliament—a timeline that has been protracted for survivors and victims and a scale of events that has escalated to such serious levels that survivors have lost trust in the Government.

It has taken months to reveal that Angela Constance clearly misrepresented Professor Alexis Jay’s comments in relation to her view of my colleague Liam Kerr’s amendment, which was voted down by the Scottish National Party and the Greens. The justice secretary continued to deny that she had misrepresented Alexis Jay until correspondence confirmed that the current position was unsatisfactory to her.

Finally, just a few weeks ago, the Scottish Government published email correspondence from Alexis Jay confirming that Angela Constance had misled Parliament. There has still been no correction or apology.

You just could not make this up. Cabinet secretaries have tied themselves in knots trying to defend their justice secretary. Let me remind Ross Greer that we have been standing up for victims of grooming gangs, not slavishly and spinelessly protecting the SNP Government. A plethora of cabinet secretaries have been rolled out to shut down the truth.

Over the course of a few weeks, Natalie Don-Innes has responded to an urgent question from Meghan Gallacher while the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs sat in the chamber; Meghan Gallacher raised the subject of an inquiry through a business motion but, again, there no action; Tess White, Pam Gosal, Sharon Dowey and Douglas Ross called for an inquiry in the violence against women and girls debate led by Shirley-Anne Somerville and Kaukab Stewart but, once again, there was no action; there was a Labour debate on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse, led for the SNP by Jenny Gilruth and Angela Constance, but once again there was no action; and there was a point of order and an urgent question from my colleague Douglas Ross but, again, there was no action. On top of that, there was an opportunity for John Swinney to respond to his justice secretary’s lying in Parliament at two separate First Minister’s question times in answering questions from my colleague Russell Findlay. There have been no answers, however—just stonewalling. That is no way to treat victims of horrific crimes.

As Taylor’s mum said,

“Where is the humanity for these young people who have to keep being re-traumatised time and time again every time they have to speak out in the hope that you will all do the right thing. The survivors demand honesty and transparency.”

John Swinney could have called an immediate inquiry. It is unclear why the First Minister has not called an immediate investigation or indeed why he has instructed his Cabinet to defend Angela Constance misleading Parliament. As my colleague Russell Findlay said, John Swinney met Taylor and her mother a week ago, on 9 December. Taylor and her mum told the First Minister about the destruction and loss of vital evidence and records held by the Government, the police, education, the national health service and local authorities.

Victims’ voices are clear: they do not want to be fobbed off. Transparency and honesty matter. It is not that the SNP is shy of inquiries, but this one really matters—this situation matters. It appears that the SNP’s strategy has been to get the issue out of the road before Christmas and hope that it goes away, and that people will have forgotten about SNP members’ disgraceful behaviour from the moment that they voted down Liam Kerr’s amendment to the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill and about the behaviour of the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs, who has let down victims.

This stinks. This is on a different scale. Labour and the Liberal Democrats agree: Angela Constance must go, for the sake of survivors and thousands of others whose trust and confidence have been undermined by a cover-up.