JOHN Swinney has rejected “entirely baseless” accusations made against the Scottish Government as he faced a no-confidence vote.

The Scottish Tories tabled the motion in an effort to push the deputy first minister into publishing advice given to the Scottish Government during the judicial review brought by Alex Salmond.

The Conservatives decided to push ahead with the vote despite "key" documents being released, claiming the disclosure was not enough and some information was still missing.

Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour deputy leader and a member of the Salmond inquiry, claimed during the Holyrood debate on Swinney's fate – which is already assured given the lack of support from the Scottish Greens for the motion – that a theme had emerged from the Scottish Government during the affair.

She said: "There is a pattern of behaviour here and it is one of obstruction, secrecy and contempt for the institution of this Parliament.

"The motion of no confidence may be in John Swinney, but I am clear that it is in the behaviour of the 'secretive national party' that is truly outrageous."

Tory Holyrood leader Ruth Davidson acknowledged her party's motion will not gain the backing of MSPs, but added: "We believe it is important and right to put on record that this is no way for the Scottish Government to treat this Parliament.

"While Mr Swinney's outriders will, I'm sure, do a lap of honour in the press, the real losers are Scottish Government employees who have lumbered with a protection at work policy that everybody knows is damaged goods and that staff are too afraid to use.

"With a bit of transparency and candour, the committee could have helped work out what went wrong and why, but John Swinney preferred to keep evidence secret at every turn."

But the deputy first minister accused Davidson and her party of playing politics.

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Taking the unusual step of defending himself during the debate, Swinney said: "On any fair interpretation of what the Government has done, the Tories' pursuit of this motion today is now entirely baseless.

"With an election only weeks away, the reality I suspect is that [the Tories] were always intent on pushing this motion to a vote, regardless of what action the Government had taken."

The Education Secretary stated the Scottish Government has now released "all of the formal written advice notes received from external counsel", as well as emails and other documents. He said minutes of meetings requested by the committee simply do not exist.

The SNP minister explained what has been released "paints a clear picture, warts and all – no embarrassment for the Government is spared on the publication of these documents".

He added: "It is worth reflecting for a moment on the significance of what the Government has done in this case.

"We've taken the extraordinary and unprecedented step of publishing formal legal advice of the kind which no previous Government in Scotland has done "And we have done so in response to the requests of the committee and motions passed by parliament.

"On any fair interpretation of what the Government has done, the Tories' pursuit of this motion today is now entirely baseless."

Swinney said the Government has accepted that mistakes were made in the handling of the complaints against Salmond and that the women were "badly let down".

Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said the committee had turned into "shabby political theatre", claiming its members were "obsessed with the idea of winning a political scalp" over the interests of past and future complainers.