Scottish Tories request probe into justice secretary Angela Constance

The Scottish Conservatives have asked independent advisers to open a probe into the SNP justice secretary in a row over grooming gangs.

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 already lodged against the justice secretary on Thursday over the same row.

On Friday, Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay wrote to the independent advisers to the ministerial code, requesting that they launch an investigation into Constance’s conduct.

“The independent advisers must do the right thing and investigate what appears to be a clear breach of the ministerial code by Angela Constance,” he said.

“The code is clear that if a minister makes an inaccurate statement, they have a duty to correct it as soon as possible. Yet despite two requests to do so, Angela Constance refused to correct the record after misrepresenting Professor Jay’s views.”

The Scottish Government is facing calls to sack Constance 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”.

Deputy first minister Kate Forbes told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Friday that she believed that Prof Jay was “content” with the process of comments made by Constance being clarified.

Forbes also called the justice secretary “credible and competent” and said she “absolutely” has confidence in Constance.

At First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, John Swinney also continued to back up Constance’s position.

Swinney said he had not “lost confidence” in his justice secretary, and he repeated that her comments in September were a “reflection of the general comment that has been made about the issues at the time”.

Previously, the First Minister said he believed Constance had been “honest”.

However, the Scottish Conservatives believe the justice secretary is guilty of a clear breach of the ministerial code and that her position is “untenable”.

“John Swinney, as ever, has closed ranks behind a beleaguered SNP minister and is refusing to launch his own probe,” Findlay said.

“If, as he laughably claims, the justice secretary has done nothing wrong, John Swinney should welcome an investigation into her conduct.

“The reality is that Angela Constance has lost the confidence of grooming gang victims because she misled parliament and then refused to admit it. Her position is untenable.”