HOLYROOD deputy presiding officer Linda Fabiani is to chair a parliamentary inquiry about Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon despite opposition fears over perceived bias.

The SNP MSP, who was a Europe minister for two years when Mr Salmond was First Minister, will convene a new special Holyrood committee on sexual harassment.

It will look at the Scottish Government’s botched investigation of complaints against Mr Salmond and the related actions of Nicola Sturgeon, her officials and special advisers.

MSPs voted 92-19 to set up the inquiry, with Labour MSPs voting against, in protest at the SNP taking the chair.

Ms Fabiani’s nomination convener was announced by minister for parliamentary business Graeme Day.

Although the SNP has the right to convene the committee under Holyrood rules, Labour and the Tories said they wanted the SNP to step aside and give the chair to another party.

Labour MSP Neil Findlay said his party backed the inquiry and its remit, but could not vote for it while the SNP held the chair, saying there was a “perception of in-built bias”.

He said the inquiry into the most powerful politician in Scotland and her predecessor was a key test for Holyrood, and Labour had “serious concerns” the parliament’s reputation could be damaged by putting a member of the same party in charge of it.

The SNP have four MSPs on the probe, the Tories two, and the LibDems, Labour and the Greens one MSP each, with a gender split of six women and three men.

The inquiry is expected to be mothballed almost immediately to avoid cutting across separate legal proceedings against Mr Salmond, who denies any criminality.