John Swinney faces FMQs after justice secretary survives no confidence vote

John Swinney will face First Minister’s Questions just two days after his justice secretary survived a no confidence vote in the Scottish Parliament.

Angela Constance has been fighting for her job amid a row over action taken on grooming gangs.

She received 67 votes in favour of keeping her in post, with 57 voting in favour of ousting the SNP MSP.

There was one abstention.

The justice secretary had been accused of “misrepresenting” the views of a leading child abuse expert while rejecting calls for an inquiry into grooming gangs in September.

Two separate motions of “no confidence” were lodged against Constance over the row last week, and it was put to a vote at Holyrood on Tuesday.

Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats voted against her, while Green and SNP MSPs backed her to stay in the role.

Immediately after a motion of no confidence in Constance was defeated, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar wrote to the three independent advisers on the Scottish Government’s ministerial code.

Opposition leaders have continued to call for Swinney to sack Constance, but he has continued to offer her his “full confidence”.

Constance was fighting for her job amid claims she “brazenly misrepresented” Professor Alexis Jay, who led the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham in 2014, on the issue of grooming gangs in Scotland.

When Constance rejected calls for an inquiry into grooming gangs in September, she told MSPs Prof Jay agreed with her that such a probe was not needed.

Emails made public by the Scottish Government on Wednesday revealed Prof Jay later contacted the justice secretary to say she would “appreciate” her position “being clarified”.

Both Constance and Prof Jay were summoned to give evidence at the Scottish education committee on Wednesday morning, where the justice secretary said she owed Professor Alexis Jay a “professional apology” after quoting her in September.

“Allow me to put on public record the apology that I gave Prof Jay privately for having so much focus not on her imminent work, nor on the subject of child protection, but on remarks made by me in the chamber,” Constance said.

“It was never my intention to have Prof Jay be the subject of so much intrusion and attention, and I very much regret that.”

John Swinney could continue to be pressed to initiate a national grooming gang inquiry, and he could also once again be urged to sack Constance.

FMQs will be broadcast from the Scottish Parliament at midday on Thursday.