Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has defended Holyrood’s presiding officer after she was criticised by his party’s president.
MP for Gordon Malcolm Bruce had launched an unusually political attack on Mid Fife and Glenrothes MSP Tricia Marwick, who resigned from the SNP to take up the impartial role in May.
Expressing concern about a lack of checks and balances in place to scrutinise the SNP majority government, Mr Bruce said nobody had envisaged a situation where “one party would control the chamber and provide the presiding officer.”
He said Ms Marwick lacks the “will or gumption” to stand up to Alex Salmond during the parliament’s showpiece First Minister’s Questions session.
“As (last) week illustrated, Alex Salmond seems disinclined to answer the questions put to him,” he said. “Yet, the presiding officer from his party does not appear to have the will or gumption to intervene.
“Concern is rising at the potential for central ministerial controls with the accretion of powers to date.”
He continued: “It is little wonder that many businesses feel they have to keep in with ministers even if they do not agree with them.
“Ministers must not act as if they were leading a one-party state.”
But Mr Rennie, the Mid Scotland and Fife MSP, has moved to distance himself from the remarks.
He told The Courier: “I think Tricia is actually handling the situation pretty well. She does do it behind the scenes, quietly and quite determinedly. I think she has responded to the challenge.”
Mr Rennie said the first session after Ms Marwick was appointed saw Mr Salmond give “long, blustering” answers, but Ms Marwick had dealt with the problem.
“She took action behind the scenes and it had stopped by the next week,” he said.
But Mr Rennie added that he does believe there are “fundamental problems” with the scrutiny process at the Scottish Parliament.
“I do think there is a real problem with holding the Scottish Government to account,” he said. “When we get the backbenchers at First Minister’s questions asking about subjects that are not the responsibility of the First Minister there is a fundamental problem.
“I think the backbench SNP MSPs need to reconsider their role in holding the executive to account.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Parliament said: “It is not the role of the presiding officer to hold the First Minister to account. That is the role of the leaders of the opposition parties.
“The presiding officer facilitates opposition leaders in doing so, and one of her first actions was to ensure that Mr Bruce’s party continued to have that opportunity at First Minister’s Questions, as well as affording backbenchers more scope for questions to the FM.”