Highlands and Islands MSP Donald Cameron has pressed the Lord Advocate, James Wolffe, on the role of the Crown Office in threatening the freedom of the Scottish Parliament to conduct its own business.

Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Conservative MSP, who is himself an advocate, asked the Lord Advocate whether he recognised, “an inherent conflict in the Lord Advocate being both the government’s chief legal adviser, attending Cabinet, AND the independent head of Scotland’s prosecution service?”

Speaking later Mr Cameron said: “The utter shambles that has been the Salmond Inquiry, with the Scottish Government placing obstacle after obstacle in its way, is in danger of reducing the Scottish Parliament to a laughing stock.

“The separation of powers, between parliament, the executive and the judiciary, which is so essential to a parliamentary democracy has been undermined by the actions of an SNP Government which has become a byword for arrogance and self-regard.

“Whatever the outcome of the grisly civil war being waged between different factions of the SNP, it is clear that the structures of governance in Scotland need to be closely examined in light of what has happened.”