Nicola Sturgeon has come under direct pressure to explain her role in awarding the botched contract for two CalMac ferries that are £150m over budget and still incomplete.
The First Minister has been drawn further into the ferries fiasco after Jim McColl, the former Ferguson yard owner, claimed ministers rushed through the order in 2015 without proper safeguards to maximise publicity ahead of Sturgeon’s first party conference as leader.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, McColl suggested Sturgeon had misled the Scottish Parliament last week when she claimed the contracts were signed off by former Finance Secretary Derek Mackay.
