NICOLA Sturgeon is facing a motion of no confidence tomorrow over the Alex Salmond row.

It is understood there will be a 45 minute debate if it goes ahead.

The Scottish Tories had been pushing for a vote to take place on Wednesday, but now an agreement with the parliament has been reached for tomorrow.

Sources say the SNP and Greens argued that any such vote should happen tomorrow.

Scottish Conservative chief whip Miles Briggs said:  "We had hoped to hold the vote on Wednesday but that has now been brought forward to Tuesday.

"The SNP have been complaining that we acted hastily and did not given MSPs time to look at the evidence.

"But pressing ahead on Tuesday make it less likely that MSPs will have time to consider the Salmond Inquiry findings.

"This demonstrates they are in a flap. They clearly expect the Salmond report to be damning, as seen by their increasingly intemperate and disrespectful outbursts towards committee members.

"The Nationalists will do everything possible to undermine Parliament and dodge accountability.

"But no matter what strokes they pull, the evidence is clear that Sturgeon repeatedly mislead parliament and must resign."

A report on whether the First Minister broke the ministerial code is due to be published later today.

If a vote of no confidence takes place, it will happen hours after the publication of a Holyrood Committee report into the Scottish Government's unlawful invesigation into complaints made against Salmond.

An investigation against Salmond was launched in early 2018 when two female civil servants made complaints into Salmond's alleged behaviour during his time as first minister.

Salmond launched a legal challenge to the Scottish Government's investigation.

He won his judicial review in January 2019, with the government conceding its investigation into the complaints against him was unlawful because it was “procedurally unfair” and “tainted by apparent bias” because its investigating officer had had prior contact with the two complainers - in breach of a newly-designed procedure.

Salmond was later charged with sexual offences and last year acquitted in the High Court in Edinburgh of all 13 charges against him.

The Holyrood committee was set up to find out what went wrong in the government's investigation which led to the former first minister being awarded more than £500,000 from the taxpayer in legal costs.

Last month the Scottish government handed the inquiry legal advice it had received from external council over the merits of its case.

It revealed the lawyers had "reservations" about the court battle with Salmond more than two months before it conceded to the former first minister.