Nicola Sturgeon has refused to answer any questions about why the Scottish National Investment Bank chief executive abruptly resigned last week.
Under questioning from Douglas Ross at First Minister’s Questions, Nicola Sturgeon repeatedly dodged questions about the bank’s leadership.
The Scottish Conservative Leader accused the SNP of “secrecy” and “shutting down scrutiny”, and pointed out it could be a breach of the Ministerial Code unless there is a clear and lawful reason for hiding the information.
The Ministerial Code states: “Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.”
Douglas Ross also raised the Scottish Greens’ influence on SNP Government economic policy. This week, Green MSP Maggie Chapman said “the focus on growth is outdated”. The Greens have previously said that they are against eternal economic growth.
Scottish Conservative Leader Douglas Ross said: “This is all starting to look very murky. Nicola Sturgeon completely dodged every question about the abrupt resignation of the chief executive of the Scottish National Investment Bank.
“The Ministerial Code demands that information cannot be hidden from the public unless there are ‘clear and lawful reasons’ for doing so. We’ve no idea if that’s the case because Nicola Sturgeon won’t say a word about it.
“This secrecy and shutting down scrutiny is completely unacceptable, especially when this bank will eventually be in charge of £2 billion of public money.
“The timing is very suspicious. The chief executive of Scottish National Investment Bank resigned just days before the SNP launched a new economic strategy that was wafer thin, underwhelming and watered down by the Greens.
“It sums up a government that’s out of ideas or any vision for creating Scottish jobs and growing our economy.
“For the last 15 years of SNP Government, the Scottish economy has been stuck.
“This government has created more problems than jobs. We’ve seen one major failure after another, from Prestwick airport to Ferguson shipyard to BiFab.
“Nicola Sturgeon’s solution is to bring the anti-jobs, anti-business Greens into government.
“The Greens don’t believe in economic growth. Their policy is actually to make Scotland poorer.
“Is it any wonder this government’s economic plan is a shambles when that influence is driving SNP policy?”
