Commons divisions over Scottish independence spilled over into an angry public row between Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross and SNP MP Pete Wishart.
The undignified exchanges took place at the Scottish Affairs committee with Ross accusing Wishart, the chair of the committee, of making biased attacks on the Scottish Secretary while he was giving evidence to MPs in the wake of the Holyrood election.
Ross, who is returning to Holyrood as leader of the Scottish Tories, took exception to Wishart bridling Scottish Secretary Alister Jack over the results of the election which saw Nicola Sturgeon returned for a record fourth term.
Given his turn to ask questions Ross said: “I have to say at the outset how disappointed people must have been to watch the frankly inept and poor chairing of this committee so far by Mr Wishart...”
That drew an immediate angry reaction from Wishart: “Excuse me., Douglas Ross, there’s no need at all to make attacks on the chair of this committee, I’ve been elected by the House this year this committee, could you please just get on with addressing your questions. It’s a distraction to me doing my job without personal attacks like that.”
But Ross would not back down and said the chairman was not being impartial. He said: “When you’re so poor at your job, I will personally attack you,,.”
The row continued as SNP MP Mhairi Black came to ask questions and Wishart said the committee could expect “much more civility” from her.
Ross interrupted again to accuse Wishart of “extremely poor performance as a convener.”
That ended Wishart’s patience with the Tory MP.
“I think we’re just getting tired of these feeble and pathetic little casting of aspersions on the chairing of this committee, It really is embarrassing for you Mr Ross. We’ll get on with asking questions to the Secretary of State which is what the session has been designed to do. You’ve had your say.”
The row has its roots in the behind the scenes argument in the committee about changing the timing of the Thursday morning meetings to allow Wishart to attend the Commons chamber as the SNP’s shadow leader of the House.
Opposition MPs on the committee will not agree to a change in the timetable much to the frustration of the Perthshire MP who wants to take up his duties facing Commons leader Jacob Rees Mogg while maintaining his chairmanship of the committee.
