Labour have said the ministerial code is "not fit for purpose" as an investigation is to take place to decide if Alex Salmond broke it with his stance on legal advice over an independent Scotland's future in Europe.
The First Minister announced last week he had referred the matter to the independent panel of advisers on the Scottish Ministerial Code.
A row erupted after Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon revealed the SNP only recently commissioned specific legal advice on the issue, when Salmond appeared to suggest such advice had been taken in an earlier BBC interview.
The Rt Hon Lord Fraser of Carmyllie QC, the Rt Hon Dame Elish Angiolini QC, and Sir David Bell will investigate if the First Minister broke the code.
Lewis Macdonald, Labour's justice spokesman, said: "The ministerial code is being used by the First Minister as his 'get out of jail free card'. Instead of being used as a way of keeping the ministers honest, he is using it as a defence as he bends and tries to get round the rules. It's not fit for purpose.
"The truth is Salmond effectively writes the code, signs it off and then decides who will police it."
A spokesman for Salmond said: "This is rank hypocrisy. The Ministerial Code is essentially unchanged from Labour's time in office, with one crucial exception: under the Labour Party, complaints against the First Minister were judged by the First Minister. Now they are independently judged by public figures of unimpeachable integrity - The First Minister has launched an investigation Labour asked for, under a code they adopted in Government. It now looks like they know it has no foundation."
Salmond said: "The findings of the independent advisers will be made public. I will accept them and I hope all members of this chamber will do the same."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article