TORY MSP Stephen Kerr was left red-faced in the Scottish parliament after the Presiding Officer rubbished his attempt to use a standing order.
The Central Scotland MSP interrupted questions after Kate Forbes's statement on the resource spending review to call for an extra 30 minutes to allow questions to be answered.
Citing an incident when Scottish Labour’s Daniel Johnson made a similar call after Forbes made a statement on the National Strategy for Economic Transformation, Kerr tried to use this as precedent.
However, Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone pointed out that the time allowed for questions was agreed on Tuesday morning ahead of the statement by the Scottish Parliamentary Bureau - of which Kerr is a member on behalf of the Tories.
Kerr told MSPs: “On the second of March this year a motion without notice was accepted to extend business for up to 30 minutes.
“It was on a ministerial statement on Moray maternity services and was accepted on the grounds that there were still a number of members seeking to ask questions.
“So in the vein of what has been said both by the Labour spokesman and by the Cabinet Secretary and given the significant interest from MSPs in this topic, I would like to propose a similar motion without notice under rule 8.14.3 of the standing orders.”
Jeering from the SNP benches visibly angered Kerr, who shouted back: “They can shout me down all they like, shout me down all you like.”
After the Presiding Officer had weighed in and the chamber silent, Kerr added that he hoped to “extend business by up to 30 minutes or as long as it takes to get through the remaining questions”.
However, the Presiding Officer was quick to shut Kerr’s response down.
She said: “I note that he refers to a previous incident, there is no precedent set by a previous incident and by the decision of the chair here at that time.
“I would point out that the time allocated for this item was agreed at Bureau, it was voted upon by the parliament.
“There was no call at this morning's Bureau meeting for an extension to the time of this item. I would…”
Johnstone was interrupted from more jeering from the SNP benches, before adding: “I would also like to point out that it's very important that we protect time for other important items of business in the parliament this afternoon, I'm mindful of that need.
“We do have a full speaker's list where questions and responses are concise, we can of course accommodate ever more contributions.
“And now that we have taken up time debating this item. I'd be grateful if we could move on.”
