Tayside Tory candidate Stephen Kerr complained he felt “threatened” by Deputy First Minister Shona Robison during a Holyrood argument.
The Central Scotland MSP stopped proceedings in parliament to tell the presiding officer he heard Humza Yousaf’s second in command say he was “going to fall from a very high place”.
Ms Robison could be heard making the remarks to Mr Kerr during a heated row between the pair as MSPs left the chamber.
He said: “I’m very sorry to have to do this, presiding officer, but in the exchanges across this gangway here before the cabinet secretaries left this row, I perceive that I was threatened.”
In a statement afterwards, he claimed he had been threatened “aggressively”.
A spokesperson for Ms Robison said it was clear what she really meant.
“Like others who were challenging Stephen Kerr’s behaviour, Shona was fed up of his constant barracking of female members – her remarks were clearly metaphorical,” the spokesperson said.
“Indeed, Shona thinks the entire Conservative Party in Scotland is heading for a political fall at the general election, including in the seat Mr Kerr is contesting.”
Before the intervention, Mr Kerr was heard accusing SNP rivals of being “desperate” as he claimed Ms Robison was talking “nonsense” while they argued with each other.
Moments earlier Maggie Chapman, a North East Green MSP, claimed Mr Kerr had repeatedly been interrupting an SNP minister earlier in the day.
Following his row with the deputy first minister, Mr Kerr asked Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone whether Ms Robison’s comments had been “appropriate”.
“Can I ask you please for some guidance on whether or not it is at all appropriate for such threats to be made in this chamber between members of this parliament?” he asked in the chamber.
Ms Johnstone said MSPs should steer clear of any “discourteous or disrespectful” conversations with each other in the chamber.
Speaking later in the chamber, Ms Robison emphasised her comments were meant “politically” due to Mr Kerr “behaviour and arrogance”.
She said MSPs were “fed up” with Mr Kerr’s interruptions in the chamber.
However, his Conservative colleague Rachael Hamilton asked Ms Johnstone what could be done to force Ms Robison into an apology.
She claimed the remarks would have been investigated by police had they been made by a member of the public.
Dundee-born Mr Kerr, who was raised in Angus, is hoping to exit Holyrood for Westminster at the next UK election.
The Tory firebrand – a former MP for Stirling until 2019 – is standing for the Conservatives in the new Angus and Perthshire Glens seat at the general election.
Conversation