Tories table vote of no confidence in Lorna Slater

Green MSP Lorna Slater will face a vote of no confidence before the summer recess

The Scottish Conservatives have tabled a vote of no confidence in the Circular Economy Minister Lorna Slater.

The party said the Green MSP was "out of her depth" and should lose her job over the failure of the Scottish government's deposit-return recycling scheme.

Ms Slater has dismissed the move as "absurd" and a "shameless political stunt".

A debate and vote will be held in parliament on Tuesday evening.

The government has postponed its flagship recycling scheme until October 2025 at the earliest.

Ms Slater said she had been left with no choice after the UK government excluded glass from the Scottish scheme.

• Drinks producers will not fund Circularity Scotland

• Bottle return scheme firm 'on brink of collapse'

• Scottish deposit return delayed until October 2025

The BBC understands the delay has made Circularity Scotland, the firm which was due to manage the scheme, unviable in its current form.

About 50 workers are believed to be affected.

The motion was lodged by Scottish Tory net zero, energy and transport spokesperson Liam Kerr.

Mr Kerr said: "We feel we have no option but to bring this motion forward, because Lorna Slater has demonstrated that she is out of her depth as a minister.

"I don't say this lightly, but I struggle to think of a minister who has struggled so much in their brief in the seven years I've been in the Scottish Parliament.

"Her handling of the deposit-return scheme has been shambolic from day one, with her refusal to engage with business or heed their warnings that her plans were unworkable."

Scottish Tory net zero, energy and transport spokesperson Liam Kerr says Lorna Slater's position is "untenable"

The UK government approved a partial exemption to the Internal Market Act for the Scottish deposit scheme earlier this month, but said glass bottles would need to be excluded.

It said this was to bring Scotland into line with similar schemes that are due to launch in England and Northern Ireland in October 2025, which will also not include glass.

Circularity Scotland said it was "disappointed" by the delay after insisting there was no reason why the scheme could not launch in March 2024 without including glass.

Mr Kerr accused Ms Slater of "consigning" Circularity Scotland to "financial collapse".

He called for firms that made adaptions in anticipation of the scheme's launch to be compensated and criticised Ms Slater's "high-handed" decision to charter a private ferry for an official visit to Rum.

'Completely absurd'

The Scottish Tory MSP said her position was "untenable" and urged other parties to vote against the minister.

His motion, which has been supported by party colleagues, required the support of 25 MSPs to force a debate and vote.

Scottish Labour has also said it will support the motion.

However, the co-operation agreement between the SNP and Greens means it stands little chance of passing.

Ms Slater accused the Tories of using the vote to distract from negative headlines for Conservatives at Westminster after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak came under fire for skipping a vote sanctioning Boris Johnson over his response to the Partygate scandal.

She said: "This is a shameless political stunt from a Tory party that holds Scotland and our democracy in contempt.

"They can see that with Scottish Greens in government we are building a fairer, greener and better Scotland, and they don't like it one bit."

Ms Slater added: "When the Tories destroyed Scotland's deposit-return scheme, they destroyed jobs, they destroyed environmental progress, and they undermined Scotland's parliament.

"Whether they did it for a stunt so they could bring forward absurd motions like this, to distract us from the Tory horror show in Westminster, or because of their links to the industry, we will never know."