Justice secretary to face no confidence vote over grooming gangs row

Scotland’s justice secretary is set to face a no confidence vote on Tuesday.

Angela Constance has 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 the justice secretary over the row last week, and it will be put to a vote at Parliament on Tuesday.

Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats have said they will vote against Constance, and they have 54 MSPs between them.

The seven Green MSPs at Holyrood have said they will not support the motion. Along with the SNP’s 60 MSPs, they should ensure that Constance keeps her job.

In a letter sent to SNP and Green MSPs, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said that backing the justice secretary would be “sending a clear signal that lying is tolerated in the highest ranks of government and abiding by the ministerial code is now optional”.

He told the Greens and SNP members that, if they voted in support of Constance, they would “be telling the victims that have lost confidence in her that you are more concerned with politics than with justice”.

“Angela Constance cannot remain in post having lied to the public and lost the confidence of survivors,” Sarwar said.

Constance is 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”.

After the issue was raised at First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, John Swinney insisted he had full confidence in his justice secretary.

He added that Constance had been “making a general comment” on the situation when she made the remarks.

Deputy first minister Kate Forbes said she believed Prof Jay was “content” with the process of comments made by Constance being clarified.

However, Sarwar said that Constance had misled Parliament “on perhaps one of the most serious issues in her brief” and had then “repeatedly refused to correct the record”.

Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay has also insisted Constance’s actions “mean she has lost the trust of victims”, adding that “that alone is reason for her to go”.

A Scottish Greens spokesperson said that survivors of abuse “deserve so much better than this being turned into a party political issue”.

The spokesperson said: “Protecting children from sexual abuse and securing justice for victims and survivors is our priority, as it should be for every MSP. The vote does neither of those, so we will not back it.

“A far better use of Parliament’s time would be for the Justice Secretary to answer questions and make a statement announcing what additional steps the Scottish Government is taking to safeguard children.”