First Minister should lead by example, says Starmer
NICOLA Sturgeon must resign if she is found to have misled the Scottish Parliament, Labour’s UK leader said yesterday.
Sir Keir Starmer said it would be “incredibly serious” if the report from the Alex Salmond Inquiry found the First Minister had broken the code of conduct that all senior elected representatives have to follow.
Speaking alongside Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar at a media briefing, Sir Keir was
asked if the SNP leader should resign if a committee of MSPs concluded she had broken the rules in the report, due to be published on Tuesday morning.
Striking a note of caution he said: “We can’t prejudge this, we have to wait for it.
“But if the report suggests the First Minister has misled parliament and potentially breached the ministerial code then that is incredibly serious.
“Obviously the focus is very much Nicola Sturgeon, but actually it is bigger than that.
“It is about the integrity of the Scottish Parliament, the integrity of the office of First Minister, and standards in public life.
“The Code is important, the Code is explicit, and the expectation has to be if there is a breach of the Code, and I say if, then there should be a resignation.The foreword to the latest edition of the Scottish Ministerial Code was written by Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister and she said: ‘I will lead by example in following the letter and the spirit of this Code’.
The Labour leader added: “So she has set high standards and now she needs to live up to those high standards.
“But we will have to wait and see what the report actually says next week.”