The Scottish Conservatives are lodging a motion of no confidence in Deputy First Minister John Swinney, who heads the Scottish Government’s response to the Holyrood inquiry. The motion will be withdrawn if Swinney publishes the legal advice received over Alex Salmond’s judicial review. Salmond claims the Scottish Government’s legal counsel told them that they were staring defeat in the face, and despite this they pushed ahead at a cost of £500,000 to Scottish taxpayers. They went on to lose a year later.

The Scottish Parliament has now on two occasions voted for the Scottish government to release the advice it received, if Swinney still refuses to publish the advice by this afternoon, the Scottish LibDems have said they will back the Conservatives’ motion, along with the Scottish Labour Party and Reform UK Scotland. If all the Scottish Greens back it too the motion will pass, as the SNP does not hold a majority in Holyrood.

Scottish Tories are racing to have the motion heard before Nicola Sturgeon’s committee showdown on Wednesday. It’s on a knife edge, as any minister on the receiving end of a no confidence motion must be given two days notice to prepare their defence…

UPDATE: The BBC is now reporting that the Scottish Green Party will back the no confidence vote unless Swinney hands over the advice to the Committee in full.

UPDATE II: Swinney has now said he will publish key legal advice tomorrow. The question now is how much will be held back or redacted. The SNP have form on the latter…