David McLetchie: "No credit"

Mr McLeish took time out at lunchtime to visit the parliamentary canteen, chatting to backbenchers.

The Tories have allocated part of their parliamentary time to this issue on Thursday - and will call upon Mr McLeish to quit.

The Scottish National Party have now also tabled their own demand for the first minister's resignation.

Labour and Liberal Democrat MSPs are ready to back Mr McLeish - meaning he will win the vote - but the first minister knows he needs to give a powerful performance to sustain that support over the longer term.

The Tories claim Mr McLeish has lacked candour and transparency and has lost the confidence of the people of Scotland.

Constituency office

They said Mr McLeish took too long to account for the income he received from sub letting part of his constituency office in Glenrothes, Fife, when he was a Westminster MP.

Leader of the Scottish Tories, David McLetchie, said that the information had to be dragged out of Mr McLeish.

He said: "That reflects no credit on Henry McLeish MP and it certainly reflects no credit on the first minister of Scotland."

But the first minister claims he has now answered the key questions.

On Tuesday, Mr McLeish made a belated attempt to put an end to the controversy over his office expenses, calling the affair "a muddle not a fiddle".

The row centres around Mr McLeish's Fife office

He said he regretted the matter, but he insisted he would continue as first minister.

In an interview with BBC Scotland, he explained that his constituency office in Glenrothes had generated �36,000.

He said the money had been raised through five sub lets since he first became an MP in 1987, with the aim of improving the service he offered to his constituents.

The first minister stressed there was no personal gain from the money raised.

Mr McLeish has already paid back �9,000 to the House of Commons Fees Office, but he said he is prepared to pay back the full amount from his own pocket if required.

He already has the support of Labour MSPs and the Liberal Democrats have agreed to back him by rejecting the Conservatives' call for him to quit.