A Scottish minister has resigned after a row over aggressive gulls spilled over into an angry altercation with the former Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross.<\/p>\n
Jamie Hepburn, the Scottish government\u2019s minister for parliamentary business, tendered his resignation after Ross accused him of assault outside the parliament chamber on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The former leader of the Scottish Tory leader alleged Hepburn had grabbed him by the shoulder before subjecting him to verbal abuse after Ross had challenged Hepburn over the government\u2019s apparent failure to tackle gull attacks on people in his region.<\/p>\n
Hepburn denied the assault but acknowledged he used aggressive language, leading Ross to demand an investigation under the ministerial code by John Swinney, the first minister.<\/p>\n
The altercation was not caught on CCTV but an unnamed MSP from another party backed up Ross\u2019s account. Ross had accused the government of dithering over plans for a summit to tackle \u201cout of control\u201d gulls.<\/p>\n
Swinney had defended Hepburn, who is widely liked within the Scottish National party and respected by opponents. Ross, who quit as Scotland\u2019s Tory leader<\/a> in a row over his bid to become an MP at the last election, is known for trying to goad ministers.<\/p>\n In his resignation letter, Hepburn acknowledged his behaviour was inappropriate and said it was \u201cquite out of character\u201d. He said: \u201cIrrespective of whether or not the ministerial code has been breached, even if there had been no complaint made, I believe I have not acted in accordance with my own personal code of practice.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope it would be felt by most \u2026 that in my personal and professional undertakings I have always tried to act courteously in interacting with colleagues, either of our own party or others. There is no denying that my interaction with Douglas Ross fell well short of that standard.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite whatever annoyance I felt at that particular moment, there is a manner in which that might have been conveyed, or indeed shouldn\u2019t have been conveyed. That is not in utilising the language that I did.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cWith no sense of personal pity, having served continuously in government for almost 11 years it is a source of regret that my tenure in ministerial office comes to an end in this fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n Ross said Hepburn had contacted him after his resignation to apologise in person about his conduct. Quitting was the \u201ccorrect decision\u201d, Ross said, adding that Swinney should have acted sooner by sacking Hepburn immediately after he heard about the incident.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cJamie Hepburn admitted behaviour that fell well short of that expected of ministers,\u201d Ross said. \u201cInstead, John Swinney backed him and the nationalists were determined to ride this out and endorse that behaviour until I called for the situation to be investigated by the independent advisers on the ministerial code.\u201d<\/p>\n