Tycoon Jim McColl accuses Kate Forbes of defamation over 'shifting blame' ferry fiasco claim

Under the Scotland Act, MSPs are protected from being sued for defamation over anything they say during proceedings of the Scottish Parliament. The publication of any statement under the authority of the Parliament is also absolutely privileged.

Past examples of controversies include Donald Trump’s son Eric accusing Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie of making “libellous statements” in Holyrood.

The Ferguson Marine row blew up after Jim McColl spoke out over the issue when he said the calamitous ferry fiasco contract was agreed for political gain.

Kate Forbes sidestepped questions about which minister signed off on the £97m deal to build two CalMac ferries, but insisted that it did not breach any procurement rules.

The First Minister had come under pressure after Mr McColl doubled down on allegations the award the Ferguson Marine shipyard was made swiftly because the SNP wanted to announce it at their autumn conference in October 2015.

Public spending auditors said ministers approved the calamitous ferries contract despite being warned that it carried “significant risks” for taxpayers as it lacked usual financial safeguards including a builders' refund guarantee.

READ MORE: Ferguson Marine: Ex-chief Jim McColl wished he had walked away from £97m ferries deal

And Mr McColl said that he believed the decision to to overrule advice from experts and sign off the contract was made by the First Minister along with then transport minister Derek Mackay, who oversaw a transition towards the nationalisation of the yard when it fell into administration in August, 2019.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), the state-controlled firm that owns and procures CalMac’s ferries wanted to pull out of the contract weeks after the Inverclyde shipyard firm was named as the preferred bidder.

But Ms Forbes has now sparked a row by passed the blame over the fiasco onto Mr McColl and his company.

"The contract was awarded in line with all of the procurement rules and practices in the normal way, as the Audit Scotland report confirms, and contrary to what Jim McColl said it was the chief executive of CMAL and Jim McColl himself who signed the contract. This is a man with a clear interest in shifting the blame on others when the root cause, ultimately to the delays of these important vessels was the construction under FMEL," she said at the Scottish Parliament.

Mr McColl has hit out at the finance secretary saying that what she said was defamation.

"They are good at saying things in Parliament, aren't they, because they are protected from defamation," he said.

"What was said is totally untrue. This issue was not of FMEL's making.

"Kate Forbes wasn't there at the time, and was not involved. All she is, is a spokesperson for the message the government want to put over."

He said that all parties were aware of the lack of a builders' refund guarantee and that he was unaware that there remained concerns - with both CMAL and FMEL signing off on the contract.

Ministers carried out a takeover after Ferguson Marine went into administration following a dispute with CMAL over sprialling costs and "unforeseen complexities" over the ferries project.

Mr McColl says that despite a formal complaint being sent to the First Minister in 2018 complete with two detailed reports from impartial experts ministers failed to take responsible leadership and sanction the appointment of a suitably qualified independent expert to undertake the usual industrial arbitration to resolve the dispute.

"The reason they didn't step in is that CMAL had something over them. This is what they had over them, they were forced to take the contract. That is not us shifting the blame."

"I thought CMAL were supportive of us, they gave us the order. They knew from day one we couldn't put up a [refund guarantee]. I told the government why. I said we were up against Polish yards, German yards, Turkish yards all of which have government schemes that back their refund guarantees. And we don't have that in the UK, so we are not on a level playing field. I couldn't put up a guarantee for £100m and it was never on from day one."

Scottish Labour's shadow transport secretary Neil Bibby asked if the award of the contract without a full refund guarantee, was discussed and agreed by the cabinet and if so were they made aware of CMAL's concerns. He also asked if the position to ignore CMAL was made by Mr Mackay alone.

But Ms Forbes sidestepped the question saying there had already been a debate on the subject.

On Thursday Nicola Sturgeon told Holyrood the "buck stops with me" over the deal.

But she also highlighted that Mr Mackay was on holiday when the preferred bidder status was signed off. He resigned from the government in 2020 over messages he sent to a teenage boy.

Mr Bibby has written to the Scottish Parliament's public audit committee to call for Nicola Sturgeon and Derek Mackay to be summoned to give evidence on the ferries fiasco.

There have been concerns that Mr McColl's assertions could lead to legal challenges from the firms that lost out in the procurement process as it appeared set up to favour Port Glasgow-based Ferguson Marine.

The tycoon said to the BBC had he known of the objections from CMAL he would have pulled out.

The contract for Glen Sannox and an unnamed vessel known as Hull 802 was awarded a year after Mr McColl stepped in to rescue Ferguson, the last commercial shipyard on the River Clyde.

The first ship was meant to enter service on the Arran route in the summer of 2018 but is not expected to be ready until next year at the earliest - five years late. Hull 802, destined for an Outer Hebrides route, has gone the same way. The latest estimated cost for both ships is at least around a quarter of a billion pounds, off an original fixed contract price of £97m.

Mr McColl has previously accused the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of announcing the contract publicly before a price had been agreed and told the Herald last year that the SNP wanted to make political capital out of it.

He has also said that he believed he was a "pawn" in the Scottish Government's attempts to save the yard and while denying cronyism, that he got the contract due to his connections with previous SNP leader Alex Salmond and that the SNP government favoured the yard, and not him personally.

SNP ministers have come under consistent criticism over the awarding of the ships contract after it emerged Ferguson Marine submitted the most expensive bid for the work out of six competing yards, but CMAL the yard the nod because it had the highest specification and quality.

Ministers believe they were acting in the public interest in taking control of Ferguson Marine, as it saved the yard from closure, rescued more than 300 jobs and ensured that the two vessels under construction will be completed.