Angela Constance survives no-confidence vote

Angela Constance has survived a vote of no confidence following a short debate in parliament.

MSPs backed the justice secretary by 67 votes to 57.

The motion was brought forward by Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay, who said Constance had misrepresented the views of a child sexual abuse expert to parliament.

But First Minister John Swinney insisted Constance had “never” sought to mislead parliament and she had his “full confidence”.

The row was over comments made by the justice secretary about the views of Professor Alexis Jay on grooming gangs.

In a debate in September, Constance quoted Jay while arguing against an amendment that would have empowered the new victims commissioner to establish a grooming gangs inquiry.

She told parliament that Jay “shares my view” and “does not support further inquiries into child sexual abuse and exploitation”.

Jay, who chaired the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales between 2016 and 2022, later wrote to the cabinet secretary seeking a correction. She said her comments had been taken out of context and she had “expressed no views” on the amendment.

Bringing the motion of no confidence forward on Tuesday, Findlay said the justice secretary had had multiple opportunities to correct the record, had “buried” the clarification in a document on an “obscure government web page”, and had “still not admitted her mistake”.

He said: “This is about truth. This is about respect. This is about simply decency. And I therefore urge every MSP here today to vote to remove the justice secretary for misleading the parliament, the public and grooming gang victims.”

His motion was backed by Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat MSPs but was voted down by SNP and Green members. There was one abstention.

Swinney defended his justice secretary by insisting she had been making “a general point drawn on the publicly stated views of Professor Jay” – but had never claimed Jay’s comments were about the specific amendment.

“I acknowledge that members of parliament and members of the public will draw different conclusions from the words we all use… Angela Constance is a sincere minister who would never address parliament in a way that would mislead parliament or the public,” he continued.

He added: “Angela Constance has my full confidence as justice secretary. She is getting on with the job of making Scotland safer and I urge members to enable her to continue doing that by rejecting this motion today.”

But Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar – who had tabled his own motion of no confidence in Constance – said the issue had “stopped being an error and become a matter of honesty and transparency” after she had failed to correct the record.

He said this “clear breach of the ministerial code” had caused abuse victims to lose confidence in Constance, and accused MSPs voting with the government of “choosing politics over victims”.

Sarwar added: “John Swinney should have sacked Angela Constance but he hasn’t. Shamefully he is not even willing to refer this to the independent advisers on the ministerial code – but it shouldn’t be up to him. That’s why I have written to the independent advisers on the ministerial code and asked them to investigate.”

Lib Dem Jamie Greene said the whole situation would have been “avoidable” if Constance had corrected the record and apologised, arguing there was “no ambiguity in what was said or how it could be interpreted”.

But Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer confirmed his party would not back the motion because they felt it was being used for party political reasons.

He said: “The Scottish Government can and should have handled this better – far better – but I don’t that would have dissuaded those who have used this issue for political advantage.”