NICOLA Sturgeon is facing a vote of no confidence next week after a Holyrood inquiry reportedly found she misled Parliament.
The Scottish Conservatives said they would give the First Minister “a last chance” to resign on Tuesday when the report from the harassment committee is to be published.
If she does not, the party said it will push for a vote of no confidence on Wednesday.
The development follows reports that the Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish Government’s handling of the complaints made by two civil servants against Alex Salmond, has found Sturgeon misled it, and therefore misled Parliament.
However it stopped short of saying she did so “knowingly”, the threshold for resignation under the Scottish Ministerial Code.
A separate inquiry by James Hamilton QC into whether she breached the code is also expected in the coming days.
It is understood the committee’s inquiry split down party lines 5-4 on the issue, with only SNP MSPs clearing their leader.
Several leaks from the Holyrood report have taken place since Thursday night, angering the First Minister, the committee’s convener Linda Fabiani and the Scottish Green’s co-leader Patrick Harvie.
It also reportedly concluded it is “hard to believe” Sturgeon did not know of concerns about the former First Minister’s behaviour before November 2017, as she has claimed.
READ MORE: Backlash as Keir Starmer calls for Nicola Sturgeon to resign over Alex Salmond inquiry
A spokesman for the First Minister has accused the committee of resorting to “baseless assertion, supposition and smear” over some of the conclusions.
Scottish Conservative Holyrood leader Ruth Davidson said: “If Nicola Sturgeon has a shred of integrity, she should be considering her position. She has every opportunity to do the right thing and resign.
“No First Minister is above the fundamental principles of honesty and trust. There is no question that Nicola Sturgeon has misled Parliament and broken the promises she made to tell the truth.
“The SNP’s erratic outburst today against the committee shows the panicked spiral they are now in.”
Davidson launched a defence of committee member Andy Wightman, a former Green MSP who now sits as an independent in Holyrood.
As the committee is split down party lines, Wightman’s vote is crucial is securing a majority for any of its findings.
Davidson said: “Their suggestion seems to be that Andy Wightman, arguably the MSP most likely to rigidly stick to his principles, is some kind of underhand political opportunist.
“It is an extraordinary attack on a committee, and its members, before it has even reported. If it was possible, the SNP’s defence looks even less credible now.”
READ MORE: SNP gain from Labour in Glasgow by-election while Greens double their vote
Earlier yesterday Harvie said members of the committee had “destroyed the credibility of their own report” by leaking it to the press.
The Scottish Greens co-leader said the group let “party politics override the public interest” as they concluded Sturgeon gave an “inaccurate” account of meeting with her predecessor during the live investigation.
“I’ve never seen a committee process more compromised by leaks, MSPs pre-judging the evidence, and party politics overriding the public interest,” he said.
Under legal challenge from Salmond in 2019, the Government conceded its investigation into complaints against him was unlawful because it was “procedurally unfair” and “tainted by apparent bias”.
The former First Minister was last year acquitted in the High Court in Edinburgh of all 13 of the sexual offences charges against him.
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