FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon should resign as a matter of principle if she is found to have broken the ministerial code, the new Scottish Labour leader said.
Glasgow MSP Anas Sarwar won his contest against Monica Lennon to replace Richard Leonard as the party leader, securing 57% of the vote, with the result announced on Saturday.
The new leader believes Sturgeon would expect a minister, if it were a Labour government, to go if they had breached the code.
An investigation carried out by James Hamilton QC is under way into whether Sturgeon breached the code over when she first knew about the harassment claims against former first minister Alex Salmond and when she told Parliament she first knew.
She referred herself for investigation but said she does not think she broke the code.
The First Minister has said: “The most appropriate place for me to be questioned about these matters is in front of the parliamentary committee.”
Sturgeon will give her evidence to the committee into the Scottish Government’s handling of harassment complaints against Salmond on Wednesday.
The Scottish Government conceded the judicial review into the investigation of Mr Salmond, which Judge Lord Pentland said was “tainted with apparent bias”.
Sarwar was giving interviews in his first full day in the new job as leader.
He said: “If there is a minister, forget who the minister is or what political party they are from, if a minister is found to have breached the ministerial code, I think people would expect that minister to resign,
“That’s what Nicola Sturgeon would say if it was a Labour politician, a Conservative politician or a LibDem politician, so let’s take the party politics out of it – it’s a point of principle.”
On whether or not the First Minister should step down, Sarwar said: “Yes, I think Nicola Sturgeon herself would say that if an opposition politician was in government and they’d breached the ministerial code, they would be expected to resign.”
Sarwar said Scottish Labour had a mountain to climb going into the election in May,
polling well behind the Tories and SNP.
He added: “The most recent poll had us on 14%. I think we’re fighting for our survival, I think we’re fighting for relevance in Scotland, I think we’re fighting to be a credible opposition.
“I hope that having got ourselves back on the pitch and off our knees we can build the five years that follow to make ourselves not just a credible opposition, but a credible alternative so we can have a Labour government in the future.”
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