SALMOND SHOULD SAY SORRY
Sturgeon calls for apology over former FM’s ‘deeply inappropriate’ behaviour
NICOLA Sturgeon yesterday called on Alex Salmond to say sorry for his “deeply inappropriate” actions towards women.
The First Minister came out fighting in her crucial appearance before the Holyrood Inquiry, blasting her predecessor’s lack of remorse, adding: “There was not a single word of regret.”
NICOLA Sturgeon has let rip at Alex Salmond - calling on him to apologise for “deeply inappropriate” behaviour towards women.
In an emotional seven-hour appearance at the Holyrood Inquiry, the First Minister said she felt “let down” by her former mentor and blasted his “absurd” conspiracy theories.
She claimed her refusal to intervene in the Government’s sexual misconduct investigation into him was the “root” of his anger.
On Salmond’s committee evidence last Friday, she said: “That he was acquitted by a jury of criminal conduct is beyond question. But I know, just from what he told me, his behaviour was not always appropriate.
“And yet across six hours of testimony, there was not a single word of regret, reflection or a simple acknowledgment of that. I can only hope in private the reality might be different.”
Asked whether she thought she owed the Scottish people an apology for having previously told them to trust Salmond, she said: “I trusted him and I’m not going to apologise for the behaviour of somebody else.
“I do not think it’s reasonable to ask me to apologise for the behaviour of Alex Salmond.
“The only person who should apologise for behaviour on his part – which he was asked to do on Friday and failed to – is Alex Salmond.” In the most emotional part of the session, Sturgeon said: “I have learned things about Alex Salmond over the past couple of years that have made me rethink certain things about him. “As I was watching him on Friday lashing out – that’s my words – against us, I don’t know whether he ever reflects on the fact that many of us, including me, feel very let down by him.”
Appearing close to tears, Sturgeon added: “I think I probably should stop there.”
She was also scathing about Salmond’s conduct, saying: “What happened is this and it is simple – a number of women made complaints against Alex Salmond. The Government, despite the mistake it undoubtedly made, tried to do the right thing.
“As First Minister I refused to follow the age old pattern of allowing a powerful man to use his status and connections to get what he wants.”
Sturgeon also hit out at claims she or her allies had “leaked” sexual harassment complaints against Salmond to the Daily Record, saying: “The thought of this becoming public, and I would have to comment on it, horrified me. Absolutely horrified me. It made me feel physically sick.
“I would have been very relieved if it had never come out into the public domain. I had nothing to gain from it and only a lot of pain and grief associated with it.”
A committee of MSPs is probing the Government’s botched probe into sexual harassment claims against Salmond when he was first minister.
He pursued a judicial review and it was agreed the internal probe, which destroyed his friendship with Sturgeon, had been “unlawful” and “tainted by apparent bias”, resulting in a £512,250 legal fee payout. He was separately acquitted of sexual offences after a trial last year.
At his evidence session last week, Salmond accused his one-time protege of misleading Parliament over meetings they had during the live probe in 2018.
He also alleged that Sturgeon’s husband, SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, and her chief of staff Liz Lloyd were among those who plotted to have him imprisoned.
The Tories have since indicated they will table a motion of no confidence in Sturgeon – demanding she resign. At Holyrood
yesterday, Sturgeon apologised to the two female complainers and the wider public for the fiasco.
But she defended her accounts of her meetings with Salmond and denied having earlier knowledge of the Government investigation into the claim against him.
She originally told Parliament she first became aware of the Scottish Government probe into Salmond on April 2, 2018, before later admitting to a March 29 meeting Salmond’s former chief of staff Geoff Aberdein when “a harassment-type issue had arisen”.
She told the committee she wishes her memory of the earlier meeting was “more vivid”, but “it was the detail of the complaints under the procedure I was given on April 2 that was significant and indeed shocking”.
With questions over why the meeting with Salmond was not recorded as government business, Sturgeon maintained she had believed it to be a party matter beforehand and then did not want it to become public and risk “breaching the confidentiality of the process”.
It was her attacks on Salmond that stood out in her evidence. On the April meeting at her home, she told how she and Salmond went to the kitchen where she read a letter sent to Salmond by the Government which informed him of the investigation.
She said: “Reading this letter is a moment in my life that I will never forget.”
Sturgeon added that while Salmond denied the allegations, he gave her an account of one of the incidents “which he said he had apologised for at the time”.
She said: “What he described constituted deeply inappropriate behaviour on his part, perhaps another reason why that moment is embedded in my mind.”
Sturgeon insisted it had been the correct decision to probe Salmond, saying: “An individual’s profile, status or connections should not result in complaints of this nature being ignored or swept under the carpet.” She was pressed on suggestions from Salmond that she had told him she would “intervene” in the action against him.
After the meeting between the two politicians in April 2018, Salmond’s lawyer said that his recollection was “her words were, ‘If it comes to it, I will intervene’”.
Sturgeon said: “I did make it clear I would not intervene. I also know that I was perhaps trying to let a long-standing friend and colleague down gently and maybe I did it too gently and he left with an impression I did not intend.”
The First Minister added: “I was possibly couching ‘I’m not intervening’ in terms that were, given the relationship between us, maybe not as blunt as they should be. I had no intention of intervening, and crucially, I did not intervene in the process.
“During this discussion on April 2, my head was spinning. I had been told something pretty shocking by Alex Salmond and there were a number of things in my head.”
But she insisted she had a “very strong instinctive view that I couldn’t and shouldn’t intervene”. She further defended the move, saying Salmond had “suggested I should be intervening to help bring about that process of arbitration”.
The First Minister said: “I would have been giving him privileged influence in a process in which I wasn’t meant to have a part.”
Sturgeon said: “One of the hardest things, which is maybe why I let him down more gently than I intended to, is saying no to a friend who is asking you for help.
“But it was the right thing to do and I’ll maintain for as long as I live.”
Sturgeon told the committee of two further meetings she had with her predecessor after the one on April 2. She said the first of these she had “arranged to meet him to say ‘I’ve told the Permanent Secretary I am not going to intervene’.”
As well as meeting him on June 7, she also saw Salmond for the “final time” around July 13. She said: “At that stage I was still a bit concerned about him… some of what probably has led me into trouble is I was concerned about him.”