STURGEON DENIES MISLEADING PARLIAMENT
First Minister denies predecessor’s ‘bombshell’ accusations
Nicola Sturgeon has denied misleading the Scottish Parliament over the inquiry into alex Salmond.
The First Minister spoke out yesterday after being accused by her predecessor of breaking parliamentary rules.
It was revealed at the weekend that a former prosecutor is considering widening his probe into whether Sturgeon breached the ministerial code.
A Holyrood committee is examining how in 2018 the Scottish government bungled sexual misconduct complaints against the former first minister.
Salmond pursued a judicial review and it was accepted the internal government probe had been unlawful and tainted by apparent bias.
The fiasco cost the taxpayer more than £ 500,000 and ended the friendship between Sturgeon and Salmond, whose allies believe he was targeted by the government and SNP figures.
James Hamilton, a former director of public prosecutions in Ireland, is leading a separate probe into whether Sturgeon broke her own ministerial code. This relates to meetings and calls Sturgeon had with Salmond during her government’s sexual misconduct investigation.
The pair met at Sturgeon’s home on April 2, 2018, but the First Minister said she forgot about a meeting with Salmond’s former chief of staff days earlier.
In a submission to Hamilton, Salmond accused his one-time protege of multiple breaches of the code.
These include her “failure” to account for the March 29 meeting when making a statement to Parliament and her “repeated representation” of April 2 as a “party” meeting.
The submission was described as a “bombshell” by an opposition MSP.
At her daily media briefing yesterday, Sturgeon said: “These are matters that are under investigation both by a parliamentary committee and also by an independent adviser on matters relating to the ministerial code.
“I will set out my recollection of events to both of those inquiries and people will draw their own conclusions. It’s very important that I answer any questions that are levelled to me before these inquiries and that I am open to full scrutiny.
“I do not consider that I misled Parliament – but that is of course for others to judge.”
Sturgeon added that her daily briefing was to update the country about the pandemic.
The First Minister said while she didn’t “refute the public interest or the importance of these matters… there are other forums where I will answer publicly”.