Salmond sacrificing justice on altar of ego, blasts Sturgeon

NICOLA Sturgeon claimed yesterday that Scotland’s justice system is being sacrificed on the ‘altar of the ego’ of her predecessor Alex Salmond.

The Scottish First Minister denied that ‘something rotten at the core of the SNP’ was poisoning the country’s institutions.

Today Mr Salmond, 66, is expected to accuse Miss Sturgeon of misleading MSPs and engineering his downfall when he appears before a Scottish Parliament inquiry.

The inquiry, which Miss Sturgeon appears before on Wednesday, is into the SNP-led government’s handling of allegations of sexual harassment against Mr Salmond. He is furious that key evidence has been redacted on the orders of the Crown Office, the prosecuting authority.

The row appears to have had an impact on support for independence, with an Ipsos MORI poll suggesting it had slipped by four percentage points to 52 per cent in three months.

During a heated First Minister’s Questions yesterday Ruth Davidson, leader of the Tories in Holyrood, said the redaction smacked of a ‘cover up’ as ‘the exact evidence that is being redacted is the most damaging to [Sturgeon] personally’.

Miss Sturgeon labelled that a ‘litany of nonsense’. She agreed it was right to scrutinise her but said: ‘What is not legitimate is to pursue a conspiracy theory, a scorched earth policy that threatens the reputation of Scotland’s independent justice institutions just because you happen to dislike this government, and to sacrifice all of that on the altar of the ego of one man.’ Scottish Labour interim leader, Jackie Baillie, said the women who accused Mr Salmond were failed by the government’s botched handling of their complaints. She added: ‘There is something rotten at the core of the SNP and it’s poisoning our democratic institutions.’

Mr Salmond was awarded more than £500,000 in 2019 after the courts ruled the government’s investigation had been ‘tainted by bias’. He was later charged with 13 counts of sexual assault, including rape. He was acquitted of all charges last March.