Douglas Ross questions neutrality of presiding officer after being thrown out of chamber

Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone “risks losing the support of the chamber”, Douglas Ross has said after being thrown out during First Minister’s Questions.

The former Scottish Tory leader was asked to leave on Thursday afternoon after heckling John Swinney and has been banned from the chamber for the rest of the day.

While the move comes after several weeks of warnings from the presiding officer about Ross’s behaviour, Johnstone instructed Ross to leave without additional warnings.

Speaking to journalists after, Ross said he could not recall a time where a member was excluded without prior warning.

He added: “She [Johnstone] reached straight for that option today, which for me raises serious concerns about it, and the speed at which she did it made me almost think it was premeditated. It didn't matter what I did today, I wonder if she was just going to go straight for that.”

He has now sought a meeting with the presiding officer and urged her to “reflect” on her actions.

He also said it raises “serious concerns about her neutrality”, highlighting that other MSPs – including finance secretary Shona Robison and health secretary Neil Gray – routinely heckled Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay but were not asked to leave.

“It does raise questions about the consistency in her decision making and how she is treating members of different parties,” he added. In particular, he suggested that she is “taking very different approaches to nationalist politicians who step out of line, compared to unionist politicians who step out of line”.

MSPs from other parties had expressed surprise about his removal, he said, and that the decision means “Alison Johnstone risks losing the support of the chamber”.

Johnstone was elected presiding officer at the start of this session of parliament. She had been a Green MSP since 2011 but had to cut ties with the party upon becoming PO.

An Scottish Parliament spokesperson said: “The presiding officer has warned Mr Ross on repeated occasions recently about his behaviour in the chamber.

“Due to his persistent refusal to respect the rules of parliament, the member was asked to leave the chamber. This suspension is for the remainder of the day.”