Nicola Sturgeon says Scots have ‘voted no confidence in Tories since ’50s’ as she clashes with Ruth Davidson at Holyrood

NICOLA Sturgeon said the Scottish people have been “voting no confidence in the Conservatives since the 1950s” during a fiery clash with Ruth Davidson in Holyrood.

The SNP chief faced off against the Scottish Tories parliamentary leader about the Alex Salmond inquiry at FMQs this afternoon.

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Nicola Sturgeon blasted the Tories’ election record in Scotland during a fiery Holyrood exchangeCredit: PA

Ms Davidson accused Ms Sturgeon of breaking the ministerial code, and questioned why the FM hadn’t resigned – alluding to the Tories’ proposed vote of no confidence.

The Edinburgh Central MSP said: “There is no argument if the First Minister was at fault for losing more than half-a-million pounds of taxpayers’ money. The argument is only about how much she is to blame for.

“There is no argument if Nicola Sturgeon broke the ministerial code, the argument is only about how badly she broke it.”

“We believe the sanction is to go. Why doesn’t she?”

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Ruth Davidson grilled the First Minister over the Alex Salmond inquiry at FMQsCredit: Reuters

Her comments provoked outrage from the SNP benches and brought a wry smile from the First Minister, who blasted back that Ms Davidson was showing “her true colours” and mocked the Conservatives’ record in Scottish elections.

She replied: “[Ms Davidson] stands up here and says scrutiny and democracy and due process is really important – but just as on Tuesday night, the Conservatives pre-judged my evidence to the Parliamentary inquiry – she’s just pre-judged the outcome of the independent inquiry into the ministerial code.

“This is just about desperate political games for the Conservatives.

“I suspect their private polling is even more desperate than the public polling right now, because, remember, the people of Scotland have been voting no confidence in the Conservatives since the 1950s.”

Earlier in the heated exchange, Ms Davidson grilled the First Minister, arguing that her government’s legal advice about Mr Salmond’s judicial review revealed that the case was “more likely to fail than succeed” nine weeks before it was conceded.

She added: “To quote the words of her own legal counsel, why did the Government try to defend the indefensible for so long?”

The First Minister quickly hit back, replying: “As anybody who paid any attention to lengthy proceedings yesterday, which clearly didn’t include Ruth Davidson, will have seen: that’s just simply not true.”

Ms Sturgeon denied prolonging the defence of the probe, saying “there were credible arguments to be made across the petition.”

But she admitted things started to go “seriously wrong” that led to the government conceding the case.

The people of Scotland have been voting no confidence in the Conservatives since the 1950s

Nicola Sturgeon

Ms Sturgeon later added: “The legal advice is there for everyone to see and people with an open mind – which doesn’t include Ruth Davidson – can look at that.”

She then went on to criticise some of the questioning from MSPs on the committee, though did not name either Murdo Fraser or Margaret Mitchell.

Ms Sturgeon said: “One of the Tory members [on the committee] seemed to be suggesting I should have intervened in the process to effectively sweep the allegations against Mr Salmond under the carpet.

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“And then the other Conservative member asks me to apologise for the inappropriate behaviour of a man.

“So there we have the Tories, I think, demonstrating without any help from me that they are indeed playing political games.”

New Scottish Labour leader was clearly unimpressed with the heated clash, saying it represented “the worst of our politics.”

Nicola Sturgeon visibly upset as she’s asked to apologise to people of Scotland

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