Sturgeon ‘not fit to lead Scotland’

Salmond: Her allies fed complaints against me to police so I’d be jailed

ALEX Salmond yesterday accused Nicola Sturgeon of ‘ a failure of leadership’ as he questioned whether the Scottish government was fit to deliver independence.

In astonishing testimony to a parliamentary inquiry, the 66-year-old said he had ‘no doubt’ his successor had breached the ministerial code.

He said the First Minister’s inner circle had overseen ‘a malicious scheme over a prolonged period of time’ to oust him from public life. Mr Salmond, who is suffering from a chest infection, was questioned for six hours by the Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish government’s botched investigation of sexual harassment claims against him. He was awarded £512,000 by a judicial review after the investigation was found to have been unlawful and tainted by apparent bias.

Mr Salmond called for the Lord Advocate, James Wolffe QC, and the head of Scotland’s civil service, Leslie Evans, to resign over the saga which has threatened Scotland’s independence bid.

Tory MSP Murdo Fraser asked Mr Salmond why he believed that senior SNP and government figures – including Miss Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell – plotted to have him imprisoned.

He replied that Miss Sturgeon’s closest allies had ‘furnished police’ with complaints against him after he launched his legal challenge against the Scottish government.

He added: ‘It came to be believed among some people that the loss of the court case would be cataclysmic not just for Leslie Evans and senior officials in the Scottish government, but for Nicola Sturgeon herself.

‘I think people came to the belief that the police process would somehow assist in firstly not losing the review, and thereafter making sure that the loss of the judicial review was swept away in the inevitable publicity of the criminal trial.

‘If I had been convicted of any offence in the criminal trial, that would be the case.’

Mr Salmond was charged with 13 counts of sexual assault, including rape, shortly after his judicial review victory. He was acquitted of all charges in March 2020.

Mr Salmond referred to a series of messages which he said showed that

‘The failures are obvious’

Mr Murrell and others had intervened in the police investigation.

In one extraordinary allegation, he said the Scottish government had failed to disclose to the police that Miss Evans had spoken to two women who had indicated they could accuse him of sexual harassment before their complaints were formally made.

Miss Sturgeon had told the Scottish parliament she first learned of the sexual harassment allegations against her predecessor on April 2, 2018. But she later conceded that she had forgotten about an earlier meeting on March 29.

Mr Salmond said he had no evidence that Miss Sturgeon was part of the conspiracy but he accused his former protegee of breaching the ministerial code.

Mr Salmond said yesterday: ‘The meeting on March 29 was not impromptu, was not accidental, was not popping your head around the door. It was a meeting arranged for that purpose and the meeting on April 2 was not popping into Nicola and Peter’s home, it was a meeting arranged for that purpose.

‘I have no doubt that Nicola has broken the ministerial code, but it’s not for me to decide what the consequences should be. You can see that the pattern of non-disclosure goes right through the judicial review, right through the criminal case and right into this committee.

‘It’s not the odd document that’s been missed out, it is a sequence of deliberate suppression of information inconvenient to the government.

‘The failures of leadership are many and obvious but not a single person has taken responsibility.

‘The move to independence, which I have sought all my political life and continue to seek, must be accompanied by institutions whose leadership is strong and robust and capable of protecting each and every citizen from arbitrary authority.’

Miss Sturgeon, who has rejected claims of a conspiracy against Mr Salmond, is due before the committee on Wednesday. She has also denied lying to parliament.