JOHN Swinney will tomorrow be added to a very small list of three previous ministers – Alex Neil, Sarah Boyack and Sam Galbraith – to face the nerve-racking and potentially career-ending event of a no-confidence vote.

The first SNP government minister to have such a motion lodged against him was Neil in May 2014 as health secretary.

Neil survived the vote by 57-67 which was held after opposition parties criticised his handling over changes to mental health provision at Monklands Hospital.

However, later that year he was moved from the health post to the social justice brief and resigned from Cabinet in May 2016.

The previous minister to face a vote of no confidence was Labour’s transport minister Sarah Boyack in February 2001 after the motion was lodged by the SNP’s Bruce Crawford. It related to her handling of the trunk road management and maintenance tendering process.

Boyack, now a Labour MSP, saw off the motion by 33 to 70, but by November that year she was out of the Cabinet when then first minister Jack McConnell wielded the axe to his government team.

Notably, given tomorrow’s subject of the no-confidence motion in the Deputy First Minister and Education Secretary, the first no-confidence vote to be held at Holyrood related to the thorny subject of exam results and the Scottish Qualifications Authority.

READ MORE: SNP insiders say John Swinney is ‘walking wounded’ over exam results

It was lodged by the SNP and the Conservatives in Labour education minister Sam Galbraith and was defeated by 66 votes to 52, with one abstention.

The opposition parties said that Galbraith was to blame for the poor handling of exams results that summer. He was staunchly defended by the first minister Henry McLeish.

The SNP and the Tories maintained that Galbraith was ultimately responsible for problems which led to thousands of pupils receiving late, incorrect or incomplete results.

Proposing the motion of no confidence, SNP education spokesman Michael Russell said such motions should be used sparingly. He said at the time: “The circumstances of this summer’s disaster for Scotland’s pupils, teachers and parents – the disaster of the failure of the Scottish Qualifications Authority – are surely serious enough for us to consider if there was an element of ministerial blame to be attached to what took place.

“And if such blame does attach, then surely the unprecedented events of this summer demand unprecedented ministerial and parliamentary responses.”

Russell said Galbraith should no longer be a minister as he failed to act at “key times during the SQA crisis”. He also accused Galbraith of an operational and policy failure.

By the time the vote was taken Galbraith had been demoted by McLeish from education to environment. But within three months of surviving the vote, in March 2001, Galbraith announced his resignation from ministerial office and his parliamentary seat for health reasons.