SCOTTISH actor Martin Compston had some choice words for the Scottish Tories following their announcement that they would be calling for a vote of no confidence in Nicola Sturgeon.

The party put out a statement last night from their Scottish leader Douglas Ross MP claiming that the First Minister "lied to the Scottish Parliament and broke the Ministerial Code" in statements about the Scottish Government's mishandling of harassment complaints made against former First Minister Alex Salmond.

This statement was ahead of Sturgeon giving evidence to the Holyrood inquiry investigating the Government's handling of complaints where Nicola Sturgeon took questions from the committee for more than eight hours.

READ MORE: RECAP: Nicola Sturgeon's evidence at Holyrood inquiry this afternoon

During Sturgeon’s evidence to the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints the First Minister gave evidence to counter the accusation of lying to Parliament in assuming she "knew" about complaints before the date she told MSPs she found out.

He said it was not until a meeting with her predecessor on April 2, 2018 at her home that she knew “beyond any doubt”.

However, a meeting with Salmond's former chief of staff Geoff Aberdein is alleged to have been when she first heard of the complaints.

She told MSPs today: “The purpose of the conversation seemed to be to persuade me to meet with Alex as soon as possible, which I did agree to do.

“Geoff did indicate a harassment-type issue had arisen, but my recollection is he did so in general terms.”

A spokesman for the First Minister said it was "irresponsible" for the Tories to table a vote on no confidence before they'd even heard the SNP leader's evidence. 

In response to the Tory's post announcing they would be calling for a vote of no confidence, Compston, star of hit police drama Line of Duty, hit back at the party for failing to call out injustices in their own party.

He said: "You're an utter disgrace. Your own health secretary has been found guilty of breaking the law and not a peep. Now you're calling for someone's resignation before they've even given evidence, no interest in answers only bringing down a political point."

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock was found to have acted unlawfully in failing to publish details of billions of pounds' worth of coronavirus-related contracts within the required time.

READ MORE: Martin Compston: 10 things that changed my life

Compston is an ardent support of Scottish independence, telling The National: "I’ve supported independence from a very young age. On the day of the referendum I was walking down to the polling station in Greenock I felt like I was walking on air. When the vote was coming I almost didn’t want the campaign to end, it was just such an incredible time for Scotland. In some ways its very disheartening to be going through what is happening now [with Brexit] ... if we don’t stand up now when are we ever going to stand up?"