The Scottish Liberal Democrats have called for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to sack her under-fire rural affairs secretary if she wants their crucial votes.
The Press and Journal can reveal that Willie Rennie’s party are demanding the scalp of Moray MSP Richard Lochhead – and could decline to support the SNP if he is retained.
The Lib Dems are potential kingmakers at Holyrood after Ms Sturgeon failed to retain her majority.
But Mr Rennie, who romped home in his North East Fife constituency last Thursday, said there is “no way” the rural affairs secretary can stay on in his role.
A spokesman for the SNP hit-back, claiming “it is for the first minister to determine her cabinet, not the leader of a party that has slumped to fifth place at Holyrood”.
Mr Lochhead faced repeated calls to jump before he was pushed in the last parliament after he oversaw the Scottish Government’s £178 million IT CAP payments debacle.
Other damaging revelations emerged, including that farmers would be charged interest on some emergency loans from the government while they waited for the delayed payments – and that the Rural Affairs secretary was told of issues with the CAP IT system as early as the beginning of 2014.
He was also implicated in the leak of confidential information about Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale during the election campaign – a claim he denied.
Last night, Mr Rennie demanded Mr Lochhead be sacked, but stopped short of saying the matter was a deal breaker with the SNP.
A senior party source, however, confirmed the Scottish Liberal Democrats “won’t back” a government including Mr Lochhead.
The source said: “This is New World – we won’t back incompetent cabinet secretaries.”
Mr Rennie said: “Richard Lochhead knew about potential problems with the new IT system before the referendum but told farmers nothing until the middle of last year.
“He left farmers struggling for months before introducing an emergency payments scheme that could see businesses clobbered with unfair interest charges as a result of the government’s incompetence.
“There are only so many mistakes a minister can make before their position becomes untenable. Richard Lochhead is now well beyond that point.
“There is no way that the first minister can keep him in his post and he should be replaced. It is time that we got a Rural Affairs Secretary who will deliver for farmers and crofters.
“They deserve better.”
But an SNP spokesman said the party had taken “significant action” to support farmers, including providing £200million in funds to support farmers awaiting payments.
He added: “The first minister will confirm her cabinet next week subject to her election by Parliament.
“It is for the first minister to determine her cabinet, not the leader of a party that has slumped to fifth place at Holyrood.”
