Scotland’s Justice Minister faced a possible vote of no confidence over the escape of a dangerous criminal from an open prison.

Opposition parties accused Kenny MacAskill yesterday of failing to protect the public and demanded to know why Brain Martin had been in an open prison when he had been sentenced only three years ago to ten years for firing a gun in a house.

Martin, 51, from Ballingry, Fife, was transferred to Castle Huntly, near Dundee, from Shotts Prison last month. He absconded on Monday.

At the time of the firearms incident, Martin, who is nicknamed The Hawk, was already on licence from a 12-year prison sentence for assault, robbery and firearms crimes. His previous offences include armed robbery and threatening police with a sawn-off shotgun.

Police were still searching for Martin last night. Political observers believe that if he commits a serious offence while on the run, Mr MacAskill’s ministerial career could come to an abrupt end.

The temperature over the Martin case was raised further when it appeared that the three main opposition parties — Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats — were considering joining together in a vote of no confidence in the Justice Minister.

Such a vote would be unprecedented in the Scottish Parliament and the parties would need a two-thirds majority of the Parliament 129 MSPs to pass one. Since the minority SNP government has the backing of its 47 MSPs — more than a third — it is unlikely that they could reach the necessary threshold.

However, if a straight majority of MSPs said that they had no confidence in the minister, it is difficult to see how Mr MacAskill could hang on.

Theoretically, if a minister was forced to quit, the SNP government could resign en masse in protest. This would bring Holyrood into uncharted territory since the opposition parties would have to try to form and alternative administration.

If they failed, the only way to resolve the impasse would be fresh elections — something none of the opposition parties would want at present.

Last night they all appeared to be adopting an “After you, Claude” attitude to tabling such a motion, with each waiting for the other party to make the first move.

Labour claimed that it was the Tories who were the main proponents of a vote of no confidence but said that if one was tabled they would support it.

The Tories said: “Nothing is ruled in and nothing is ruled out.” The Liberal Democrats said Mr MacAskill could not afford any more mistakes. Behind the party manoeuvring was a growing sense of anger among the opposition parties over what they see as a string of failures by Mr MacAskill.

They were incensed when he eschewed a Holyrood summit on knife crime earlier this year, choosing instead a ministerial visit to Canada.

Mr MacAskill’s avowed policy of replacing short-term prison sentences with community service orders has infuriated the Conservatives and Labour, which regarded his failure last week to acknowledge Parliament’s opposition to the closure of a community court initiative in Glasgow — a scheme aimed at dealing quickly with low-level offenders — as a snub to the will of Parliament.

In a statement released last night Mr Mac- Askill said that new criteria he had issued last year had included a clear presumption against returning a prisoner to an open prison if they had previously absconded and that remained the case.

He pointed out that Martin was placed in the open prison estate for the first time at the end of last month and that his previous offences had been committed while he was out on licence.

“This is the only time he has escaped from the open estate. It has to be realised that in any system there will always be failures of assessment and it can never be an exact science.”

Mr MacAskill sad that he had written to Mike Ewart, the chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to ensure that any further lessons from the case were applied.

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