The Scottish Conservatives have accused education secretary Jenny Gilruth of breaching the ministerial code by delaying rail works in order to benefit her constituents while she was transport minister.
However, first minister Humza Yousaf said the Tories were “throwing mud” and maintained that Ms Gilruth’s decisions were made to benefit the whole rail network.
The row centres on proposed line electrification work between Edinburgh Haymarket and Dalmeny in West Lothian, which would have caused eight days of disruption from Boxing Day last year.
Ms Gilruth, who represents Mid Fife and Glenrothes as an MSP and is now education secretary, asked for the works to be postponed.
The Tories say that officials told the government this would lead to an extra £1 million in costs and cause disruption to 9,000 passengers a day as a result of the work taking place outside holiday periods.
The work has still not been carried out.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross raised the issue at First Minister’s Questions today, saying Ms Gilruth “appears to have forced a change in order to give preferential treatment to her constituents at a higher cost to taxpayers and far more disruption to passengers”.
First minister Humza Yousaf said Mr Ross was making “very serious accusations indeed” and that there would be an “appropriate investigation”.
However, he said the situation was not as Mr Ross described, with Ms Gilruth’s decision having been made for the “correct reasons” in order to benefit the “entire network”.
Mr Ross held up pages of emails received under freedom of information rules.
ScotRail officials told the government that the changes would lead to “greater cost, with more customers disrupted or inconvenienced with the revised access plan”.
Mr Yousaf said the works would have led to disruption further afield than Fife and Ms Gilruth had said she wanted more done to avoid more delays on the rail network over the Christmas period.
Mr Ross said: “She should not even have been involved in this decision, she should have recused herself because of the clear potential for a conflict of interest.”
He suggested the “political interference” forced Chris Gibb to resign as chief executive of ScotRail Holdings.
Ms Gilruth’s decision led to a poorer service, he said, and “looks like a clear breach of the ministerial code and a clear-cut sackable offence”.
Mr Yousaf said: “What [Mr Ross] is hoping to do, because he is undoubtedly desperate, is throwing as much mud as possible and hoping that some of it sticks.”
The first minister said Mr Ross was being “selective” in his reading of the emails, and that it was “pretty clear” Ms Gilruth made her decision to minimise disruption for passengers across the network.
