PARTY loyalties are stifling Holyrood and "radical” change is needed to restore drama and spontaneity to revive public interest in its work, a former First Minister has said.

Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale said parliament had become too partisan, especially its committees, while the chamber was “too predictable”, with questions “scripted weeks in advance” and ministers able to duck proper scrutiny.

He laid part of the blame on the electoral system, saying the regional lists which supply 56 of the 129 MSPs create “jobs for life” for party loyalists and take power away from voters.

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He suggested list MSPs should be subject to “term limits” of two or three terms, and if they failed to win a constituency after that they would be forced to make way for someone new.

With Labour winning just three constituency seats last year, compared to 21 list places, such a limit could have a dramatic impact on Lord McConnell’s own party at Holyrood.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale is currently on her second term as a Lothians MSP, while Highlands & Islands MSP Rhoda Grant is on her fourth as Labour list MSP.

His fellow former First Minister Henry McLeish suggested a Holyrood chamber elected wholly by proportional representation, perhaps through multi-member constituencies.

The two were giving evidence to the Commission on Parliamentary Reform, which was set up by Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh to update Holyrood’s running after 18 years of devolution.

Lord McConnell said Holyrood was “doing ok but it’s not generating the levels of interest that it could”.

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He said the committee systems had become “more and more partisan”, and its reports rarely had a dramatic effect on government thinking or legislation.

In trying to avoid the worst aspects of the adversarial system at Westminster, the chamber was also “almost non-challenging”, making it too easy for ministers to “hide”.

Holyrood was possibly the only parliament in the world where, in the last 18 years, a minister had not been forced to resign after a gruelling question time in the chamber, he said.

“It’s only bad ministers who should fear tough question times - good ministers can learn from them. I like the fact that that we’re orderly here in Scotland, but we need to not be boring. That’s really a plea to make it a little bit more interesting and challenging.”

He also suggested Holyrood should run Congressional-style confirmation hearings to let MSPs quiz the would-be chairs of large public bodies, such as the jobs quango Scottish Enterprise.

Asked how the parliament could raise its profile and distinguish itself from the government, Lord McConnell said that would depend on the parliament asserting its will.

“Unless the parliament is, in a very public and occasionally dramatic way, holding the government to account, it doesn’t necessarily deserve a separate profile.

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“I think the parliament has got to do that job itself. The parliament will get a separate profile by its actions, not by information leaflets.”

He flatly rejected the idea of increasing the number of MSPs beyond 129 in response to Holyrood getting more powers, and said quality was more important than quantity.

He suggested changing the “inflexible” working week instead, perhaps with evening sittings.

Holyrood currently sits Tuesday to Thursday from around 9am to 6pm.

Lord McConnell ended by saying he “implored” the Commission to be radical in its thinking, as the parliament, like any institution, was unlikely to change of its own accord.

Mr McLeish said Holyrood needed a “bigger identity” at a time when “democracy was very much under threat” from events such as Brexit, calling the latter “a monumentally stupid idea”.