No, thank you.

Her constituents recalled her, there was a by-election and the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West elected Labour’s Michael Shanks by a resounding majority. They decided what should happen in those circumstances. So, it is right that we should rectify this omission. It is right that the people of Falkirk West should have the opportunity to recall their MSP, too.

I genuinely do not understand the attitude that has been adopted by John Swinney this week. Instead of upholding the highest standards of office, he chose to protect a friend. Instead of upholding the integrity of Parliament, he chose to attack members of the standards committee. Of course, John Swinney has form in undermining the Parliament and the ability of its committees to do their job, but what utterly poor judgment. This is about John Swinney, as First Minister, putting party before country, defending the indefensible and being out of touch with the people of Scotland.

I hate the sleaze and scandal that we have seen with the Tory Government, but I am afraid that the behaviour of John Swinney over the past week has been straight out of the Boris Johnson playbook. If members need any proof of that, they should look at the preceding debate. Frankly, I am astonished that the SNP failed to support a motion that it had succeeded in amending. By doing that, the SNP demonstrated its contempt for the Parliament and, more important, the people of Scotland. It has undermined the committee and the Parliament, and it has demonstrated yet again that it always puts party before country.

There is a pattern of behaviour here from the SNP. This is a party that is currently under live police investigation, that lied to the

Sunday Mail

over membership numbers and that covered up for the fact that its auditors quit.