GULLTY AS CHARGED

SNP MINISTER RESIGNS OVER BIRD BUST-UP

- BY CHRIS McCALL

JAMIE Hepburn has quit the Scottish Government after being accused of "aggressively" grabbing a Tory MSP at Holyrood in a row over seagulls.

The Cumbernauld MSP wrote to John Swinney to offer his resignation yesterday, hours after he was made the subject of an official complaint by Douglas Ross.

Hepburn, who was minister for parliamentary business, has decided to quit instead of facing an investigation into whether he had breached the ministerial code.

In a letter to the First Minister, he admitted "my interaction with Douglas Ross had fallen short of his own "personal code of practice".

On Thursday, former Scottish Tory leader Ross accused the minister of "physical assault and verbal abuse" towards him.