Red card for Tory MSP as he's kicked out of Holyrood

29 May 2025, 15:44 | Updated: 29 May 2025, 16:24

Holyrood's Presiding Officer showed Tory MSP Douglas Ross the red card and kicked the part time football official out the parliamentary chamber during an irate First Minister's Questions.

Former Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, who is also an assistant referee, was ordered out after heckling John Swinney.

He later told LBC he had been "frustrated" by what he said was the First Minister's failure to answer questions - but he also accused the Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone of bias in her handling of MSPs behaviour.

Instead of receiving a "yellow card" warning, he says the PO reached straight for a "pre-meditated" red - barring him from the chamber for the rest of the day.

Mr Ross's tackle on John Swinney came as the FM was being challenged by current Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay to rule out imposing "radical and financially devastating policies" as part of efforts to tackle climate change - including the potential culling of millions of farm animals.

Shouting that the FM was "deflecting" rather than answering the questions, Alison Johnstone intervened to order him out.

She said Mr Ross had "persistently refused" to abide by Holyrood's standing orders, which make clear MSPs should treat each other courteously.

But her actions resulted in the accusation she had a "blatant bias" against the Tories. A party spokesperson said: "The Presiding Officer has shown a consistent pattern to favour certain parties at the expense of others.

"We will be seeking discussions to reiterate that the Presiding Officer should not show blatant bias."

Mr Ross later told LBC that he is inundated with emails every week after FMQs by people asking why John Swinney "will not just simply answer the question. So there is a frustration. But whenever I have been warned [by the PO] in the past, or other members have been warned, we have behaved and allowed the session to continue.

"She has now set a precedent that without any warning, if you make a noise, if you heckle, you will be thrown out the chamber, and I will be very interested to see how many SNP government ministers get thrown out because before I was heckling today, Shona Robison and Neil Gray were shouting at Russell Findlay, but they remained in the chamber."

He added: "I have contacted the Presiding Officer for clarity. Is this a new approach that we're going to see? Are we having a zero tolerance approach? Will it be like sitting an exam in the chamber, not a single peep from anyone, and if there is, they will immediately be excluded?

"And if that is her ruling, then members across the party, across the parties and across the chamber will have to react to that as they wish. But the one thing most people would expect is consistency, and I'm struggling to see it at the moment."

Asked if the Presiding Officer's "green roots" were showing - as she used to be a Scottish Greens MSP before taking up the neutral position - he said: "Alison Johnstone said she would leave her party allegiances at the door, but she is taking very different approaches to nationalist politicians who step out of line compared to unionist politicians who step out of line."

Referring to a previous FMQs session he added: "John Swinney said the Conservatives were a disgusting party, and she just looked blank and thinks that's perfectly acceptable, whereas 20 minutes earlier in that session, Russell Findlay had been told off for daring to call the Green Party names. That was a perfect example of serious concerns I had back then.

"And if I truly wanted to be kicked out, I would have been kicked out back then because I was extremely frustrated by Alison Johnson's decisions on that particular day, but since then, she's done nothing to prove to me that she is going to be neutral as we would expect."

The Presiding Officer refused to comment on her decision to exclude Mr Ross when approached by journalists as she left the chamber.

A Scottish Parliament spokesperson said Ms Johnstone has "warned Mr Ross on repeated occasions recently about his behaviour in the chamber".

They said this occurred most recently on May 21, and also on May 8 - when the Presiding Officer told Mr Ross "if I hear you once more, you will leave this chamber" - and on both April 22 and April 3.

The spokesperson said: "Due to his persistent refusal to respect the rules of Parliament, the member was asked to leave the chamber. This suspension is for the remainder of the day."

Mr Ross's interjection came as Russell Findlay challenged Mr Swinney on proposals in a Climate Change Commission report for a "cull of two million" cattle and sheep over the next decade - with the Tory saying this would reduce livestock numbers by around 25%.

"This would drive farmers out of business, destroy the rural economy, and put our food security at risk," he added. "This is utter madness. It is an act of national self-harm."

He went on to call on the First Minister to "rule out going ahead with this specific plan". But John Swinney refused to do so, saying the Scottish Government would "in an orderly fashion, consider the advice of the committee on climate change and set out our own proposals for taking the action that is absolutely necessary".

Mr Ross's heckle was that the First Minister was "deflecting" from answering the question on the impact on farmers.