GROWING RIFT BETWEEN SNP GIANTS
ALEX Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon were at war last night after he demanded the resignation of her top civil servant in the wake of the sexual harassment shambles.
Former first minister Salmond called on Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans to stand down after she admitted the Scottish Government acted unlawfully while investigating two complaints against him.
But Sturgeon stood by Evans and insisted the court ruling did not mean the allegations made against Salmond – which he denies – were unfounded.
And the First Minister revealed she hasn’t spoken to her former mentor for six months.
Salmond said Evans had wasted up to £500,000 of public money in legal fees and was responsible for the “institutional failure” in the handling of the complaint.
He said: “The process has been admitted as unlawful, unfair and tainted by bias. You couldn’t get more tainted. So when she has got some time for mature reflection, I hope that the Permanent Secretary considers her position.”
He urged Sturgeon to focus on pursuing the case for Scottish independence as he warned her Government against re-opening any harassment investigation.
Sturgeon admitted the Government blunder was “deeply regrettable” but said she does not believe Evans should resign.
She had asked the Permanent Secretary to draw up new procedures for handling sexual harassment claims, which the First Minister signed off, shortly before the complaints against Salmond were made last January.
In a statement to MSPs, Sturgeon said: “It is important to note as a matter of fact that today’s settlement has no implications, one way or the other, for the substance of the complaints or the credibility of the complainers.
“The judicial review was never about the substance of the complaints – it was about the process of investigating those complaints. It will, of course, be open to the Scottish Government to re-investigate these complaints subject, of course, to the views of the complainants. But this will be considered only once the ongoing police investigation has concluded.
“It remains my view that the Government was right to begin an investigation when the complaints were made and not allow them to be swept under the carpet because of the identity of the person complained about.
“And while in this one respect the operational application of the procedure was flawed, the Scottish Government considers the procedure itself to be robust and it remains in place.”
In a disclosure that highlighted how the scandal has caused a damaging rift between the two nationalist legends, Sturgeon revealed she has had no contact with Salmond since last July.
Evans said an internal review would be carried out into the way the complaints process had been handled. She said she regretted the “distress” caused to the two women who’d brought complaints.
She said: “The Scottish Government has acted in good faith at all times and will continue to do so. It was right and proper that these complaints were investigated and I stand by the decision to carry out that investigation.
“It is also important to note that the procedural flaw in the investigation does not have implications, one way or the other, for the substance of the complaints or the credibility of the complainers. The judicial review was never about the substance of the complaints but about the process that took place to investigate those complaints.”
As a result, she said it was open to the Scottish Government to re-investigate the complaints, adding that “subject to the views of the complainants, it would be our intention to consider this”.
But, like Sturgeon, Evans said this would only be “once ongoing police inquiries have concluded”.