Calls for Scottish justice secretary to go over grooming gangs row

The Scottish justice secretary is facing repeated calls to resign for “misleading parliament” in a row over grooming gangs.

Scottish Labour and the Conservatives have accused Angela Constance of “misrepresenting” an independent expert’s views.

The leaders of both parties have lodged separate motions of “no confidence” against Constance on Thursday.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s motion declares “no confidence” in the Minister “in light of her failures in candour and openness in her misrepresentation and subsequent misleading statements made to the Parliament with regards to Professor Alexis Jay and grooming gangs”.

A nearly identical motion was also submitted by Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay.

“John Swinney is continuing to defend a justice secretary who misrepresented an expert, misled Parliament, misled the public, and misled victims,” the Scottish Tory leader said at FMQs on Thursday.

“Everyone in this chamber, no matter their politics, should expect honesty from Government Ministers, and if mistakes are made, they should at least be corrected.

“If John Swinney won’t sack the justice secretary, we will give Parliament a chance to have its say with a vote of no confidence.”

The Scottish Labour leader said: “She has had repeated opportunities to apologise and correct the record, but failed to do so. She can’t remain in her position.”

Labour needs 25 signatures from MSPs to force a vote.

The “no confidence” motion from Sarwar comes a week after the First Minister defended Constance over a grooming gang review.

John Swinney said he had not “lost confidence” in Angela Constance after the Scottish Conservatives called for him to open a Ministerial Code investigation into her conduct for “misleading parliament over grooming gangs”.

It was less than 24 hours after education secretary Jenny Gilruth announced a review into how public bodies have responded to grooming gang complaints in Scotland.

It was announced that Prof Jay, who chaired the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales and has ongoing work on Scotland’s national child sexual abuse and exploitation strategic group, on the issue of grooming gangs in Scotland, would lead the review, which will inform any future decisions on whether a judge-led inquiry is necessary.

During a Scottish Parliament debate in September, Constance told MSPs Prof Jay “shares my view and has put on the record and stated to the media that she does not support further inquiries into child sexual abuse and exploitation, given the significant time and resource already spent in the review that she led, the Casey audit and other reviews”.

Minutes from the Scottish Government’s national child sexual abuse and exploitation strategic group meeting in October, of which Prof Jay is a member, stated: “During the debate on the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill in Parliament on September 16, the cabinet secretary for justice quoted the views of Professor Alexis Jay on calls for further inquiries into child sexual abuse.

“Co-chair clarified that Professor Jay shared these views in January of this year in the context of her work on the independent inquiry in England and Wales and was not related to the debate on the Victims Bill or the position in Scotland.”

Previously, Swinney said he believed Constance had been “honest”.

At FMQs on Thursday, he repeated that her comments were a “reflection of the general comment that has been made about the issues at the time”.

The Scottish Government has been contacted for comment.