Conservative MSPs have been accused of “wasting time” in Holyrood and holding up debate over gender recognition reforms in a bid to delay a final vote.

MSPs sat in the Holyrood chamber until midnight considering amendments at stage three of the Scottish Government’s gender recognition reforms.

Politicians will reconvene at 1.15pm on Wednesday to continue discussing the remaining amendments before a final vote is cast on the amended plans.

But Conservatives have come under fire for pressing ahead with their aim of having the final vote delayed until after the New Year and asking unrelated questions about other Holyrood business in a bid to hold up the debate.

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Douglas Ross’s party tabled four amendments to the agenda from four members, forcing a vote on the timetable for the consideration of amendments, raising a further motion which MSPs had to vote on and a number of points of order – all before the debate on the amendments had even started.

The party also opted to push amendments to a vote, even when the proposer of the changes did not.

Following the debate, Green MSP Gillian Mackay tweeted: "I'm frustrated and angry at the conduct of colleagues trying to argue there is not enough time for scrutiny while trying to talk the debate out. I'm hugely grateful and very sorry to Parliament staff who have had to be in the building to support us."

Before discussions on the amendments have even begun, Tory MSP Alexander Burnett, claimed politicians “now face a vote on a motion that goes to extraordinary lengths to keep the final vote on the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill before Christmas”.

READ MORE: MSPs consider gender reform bill changes ahead of crunch vote

He added: “This is the culmination of the many bureau meetings at which I voiced my concerns and the minister, in turn, voiced excuse after excuse as to why the bill should be rushed, all to avoid some bad public relations for the Cabinet.”

Mr Burnett faced a ticking off from presiding officer Alison Johnstone after he labelled a meeting of Holyrood’s Equalities Committee on Monday a “kangaroo court”.

But the interventions turned to farce when Tory MSPs Jeremy Balfour, Meghan Gallacher and Sue Webber all stopped proceedings to raise points of order.

This was followed by Conservative MSP Graham Simpson calling for a statement to be delivered by a government minister on Wednesday on the strategic transport projects review while Tory MSP Liam Kerr called for a similar statement to be made on the Scottish Government’s biodiversity strategy.

Meanwhile, Conservative MSP Stephen Kerr put forward an amendment to the Holyrood business for a statement on education statistics to be made.

All three amendments were rejected by MSPs.

Labour MSP Neil Bibby said: “I once again put on record our support for those statements being made and hope that the Government will make them early in the new year.

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“We have been clear that the debate on the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill should not be curtailed.

“We ensured that the Bill was delayed until this week and that the debate was originally scheduled to be held over two days.

“The final debate was doubled in length following our request. Meanwhile, the Conservatives say that they want extra time to debate the bill but are now wasting time when we should be scrutinising the Bill.”

Despite initial confirmation that Holyrood would sit until 2am, business was ended just after midnight following discussions between the parties.

The Tory leader welcomed what he claimed was caused by the Scottish Government having “accepted midnight was too late to he debating crucial amendments”.

Mr Ross added: “Hopefully the First Minister uses the rest of the morning to consider a longer period to debate these amendments.”

But SNP MSP Emma Roddick hit out at the tactics used by the Conservatives.

She said: “Let's be clear - the Government did not timetable a debate to last into the wee hours of the next day.

“It timetabled a debate within a normal timescale and the Scottish Tories blatantly and shamelessly filibustered all afternoon and evening then complained about the time.

“This is not normal and I don't recall any similar event happening in the Scottish Parliament before.

“They have some cheek claiming anyone else is disrespecting our national parliament or democracy.”