Swinney faces FMQs after Jamie Hepburn 'bullying' row and resignation

John Swinney is set to face First Minister’s Questions on Thursday after his former parliament business minister resigned following accusations of bullying.

Jamie Hepburn quit the post on Friday after former Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross accused him of “physically grabbing” him, raising his voice, and using “foul and abusive language” inside the Scottish Parliament last week.

Hepburn admitted he used language he shouldn’t have, but downplayed the incident, saying he did not grab Ross and instead placed his hand on his shoulder.

In his resignation letter to the First Minister, Hepburn said he has been “reflecting on the incident” over the last two days and concluded that he wanted to offer his resignation as Swinney’s business minister.

He added that it was a “source of regret” that his 11 years as a minister had ended because of the incident with Ross.

The First Minister accepted Hepburn’s resignation with “much personal regret”, and he was replaced later by MSP Graeme Day.

FMQs also come after Swinney’s Government was branded “cowardly” over rent control exemptions.

MSPs have been debating the Scottish Government’s Housing legislation this week. If passed, it would allow councils to designate rent control areas, capping cost increases at inflation plus one percentage point.

However, it emerged on Monday that housing secretary Mairi McAllan decided to exempt mid-market rent (MMR) and build-to-rent (BtR) properties from the rent controls in the Bill.

MSPs later decided that student housing would also be exempt from those rent controls after voting against an amendment on Tuesday night.

The move has been criticised by both the tenants’ union Living Rent and by the Scottish Greens, who helped to shape the bill before it was proposed.

An open letter released by Living Rent urged the Housing Secretary to reconsider.

The union’s national campaigns chairwoman, Ruth Gilbert, said: “Exempting build-to-rent from rent controls is unbelievably cowardly, based entirely on false evidence and goes against nearly all of the responses to the Government’s consultation.”