John Swinney’s actions led to the resignation of fellow Minister Mark Macdonald without informing Sturgeon. Days later, attention turned to Alex Salmond.

The events

01 Nov 2017: Miss A, (who was also an elected local counselllor for the Labour Party) said that James Dornan MSP, her boss, had been contacted by someone, possibly McCann, from SNP Party headquarters. Without consulting her Dornan copied MCann her private Twitter messages of 26 September 2016, which he had retained for over a year without her knowledge or permission. His actions well fit the profile of senior officials of the SNP whose practice is to retain information which they use later to bring to account officers and/or staff who might fall foul of the Party hierarchy.

02 Nov 2017: Mark was ordered to attend a meeting with John Swinney at which Liz Lloyd was present, and was informed that there was on-going “chatter” among Party members about him in relation to the “MeToo” movement.

03 Nov 2017: Liz Lloyd convened a second meeting with Mark at which she showed him copies of his messages to Miss A. She said that a complaint that had been lodged against him by an SNP Party member, James Dornan and informed him that his position as a minister of the government was no longer tenable and he would need to resign.

05 Nov 2017: Mark resigned as minister for childcare and early years.

07 Nov 2017: In a weird turn of events Sturgeon dismissed the notion that Mark should have been forced to resign claiming that “Some may well have thought it was not serious enough to resign for.”

Swinney and Lloyd had acted without first gaining the authority of Sturgeon begging the question. Who was running the Party?

Murrell told the Holyrood Inquiry that Party policy dictated the handling of complaints within the Party was the responsibility of the Party Executive and it did not share case details with any other organisation unless the complaint highlighted a “clear act of criminality”, and at no time in the Autumn of 2017 did the Party inform any Scottish Government civil servant or special advisor of a complaint by a Party member against a minister of the Government.

Swinney and Lloyd had acted without first gaining the authority of Sturgeon begging the question. Who was running the Party?

Swinney and Lloyd contravened the ministerial code and should have been dismissed by Sturgeon.