Nicola Sturgeon on Tuesday won a vote of no confidence, by 65 votes to 31, after defiantly telling MSPs she “will not be bullied out of office”. There were also 27 abstentions.
The motion was tabled by Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, who previously insisted it is “up to the Scottish parliament to decide if the first minister has been misleading” and who has been criticised for requesting the vote before either report into Ms Sturgeon’s conduct were published.
Earlier in the day, an SNP member condemned a “partisan attempt to smear Nicola Sturgeon” earlier after a Holyrood committee’s report found the first minister had misled their investigation into the Scottish government’s unlawful handling of harassment allegations against Alex Salmond.
It came after separate findings on Monday, by James Hamilton QC, which judged Ms Sturgeon had not breached the Ministerial Code during one of the biggest scandals to ever hit Scotland’s devolved parliament.
Speaking to BBC News on Tuesday, SNP foreign affairs spokesperson Alyn Smith said: “The committee itself found it was James Hamilton who was best placed to find if she had breached the Ministerial Code, and he very clearly ruled there had been no breach.”
He added: “The whacky conspiracy theories have been debunked, it’s time to move on.”
