AN SNP cabinet secretary asked to sign off the disastrous deal to buy two CalMac ferries has repeatedly refused to say if he did it. 

Keith Brown, a Royal Marines commando in the Falklands War, tried to escape a media ambush at Holyrood by fleeing into the queue for the canteen. 

The Justice Secretary refused to discuss his own part in the episode, merely referring to the First Minister’s previous statements. 

It followed Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross repeatedly questioning Nicola Sturgeon at FMQs about a key missing document relating to the deal struck in late 2015. 

Despite being warned about the financial risks of proceeding with the standard refund guarantees in place, SNP ministers pushed ahead regardless.  

However, the document that should have recorded that decision and the rationale behind it is missing, leading government auditors to express frustration at the hole in the paper trail. 

The £97m contract with the Ferguson Marine yard on the Clyde later turned sour, leading to its collapse and nationalisation, and the boats are four years late and £150m over budget.  

Ms Sturgeon has since tried to pin the responsibility on disgraced former minister Derek Mackay, who resigned from the cabinet over a sleaze scandal in 2020.  

Available documents show that on 20 August 2015, Mr Brown, the then cabinet secretary for infrastructure investment and cities, was asked to approve the deal while Mr Mackay, then the minister for transport and islands, was on leave. 

His reply is not recorded in publicly released correspondence. 

On 8 October 2015, officials asked Mr Mackay to sign off the deal, after explaining the pitfalls, and Mr Brown, as Mr Mackay’s boss, was the first person copied into the email. 

The response to this is not recorded in publicly released correspondence, and auditors believe it was probably never created, although it should have been. 

On 9 October 2015, Transport Scotland officials told Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd, the public sector ferry owner, that “Scottish ministers” collectively had approved the deal. 

However it is unclear from the email whether Mr Mackay alone was responsible, or whether Mr Brown also had a hand. 

After FMQs today, the Holyrood press corps tried to ask Mr Brown if he had indeed signed off the deal. 

He said: "I think you've heard the First Minister's response." 

Asked why the decision was taken, given he was the minister in overall charge of the department, Mr Brown kept walking, going down the main staircase into the garden lobby, past a photoshoot for MSPs, and into the canteen, where he joined the queue. 

Asked again to explain the decision, Mr Brown said: "I've just answered the question." 

Asked if people might think his conduct suspicious, he said: "You've had a very fulsome answer from the First Minister. I've nothing to add to the answer from the First Minister." 

Asked if he had discussed the issue with the First Minister at the time of the decision, Mr Brown said: "You've had a full answer from the First Minister." 

Told there hadn't been a full answer, Mr Brown said: "Do you want me to answer the question? You've had a full response from the First Minister. I've nothing to add to the comments from the First Minister." 

Asked if, like some Ferguson Marine staff, he had had a gagging order, Mr Brown appeared to smile behind his Covid mask. 

Mr Brown later gave an interview to Channel 4 News in which he said he "responded" to the August 2015 email, but Mr Mackay had signed off the deal in October.

Stressing the jobs saved by the contract, he said of the missing document: "That document, the one that signed it off, if it ever existed, is not now available."

It was Mr Mackay's job to sign it off, he said.