Nic: Alex was a tough guy to work with
ALEX Salmond may have been a “tough guy” to work for, but Nicola Sturgeon insisted they had once been “besties”.
The pair are the most successful politicians the SNP has had, with Salmond taking the party into government in Scotland. He went on to defy the odds of Holyrood’s proportional representation system and win an overall majority – which led to the independence referendum of 2014.
But within hours of the result of the No vote, Salmond quit as leader of the SNP and first minister.
Sturgeon took over both jobs from a man who at that point was a close ally and mentor.
Giving evidence to the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints at Holyrood yesterday, Sturgeon appeared close to tears when speaking about her relationship with Salmond.
She said: “Alex Salmond has been for most of my life, since I was about 20, not just a very close political colleague [but also] a friend, someone in my younger days who I looked up to and revered.”
Sturgeon insisted she had “no motive, intention, desire to get Alex Salmond”.
But while the two had once been the closest of allies, she said he is now angry with her – in part because of her refusal to intervene when the Scottish Government was investigating complaints against him.
She learned the detail of those complaints when she met Salmond at her home on April 2, 2018. A suburban house on the eastern edge of Glasgow was the location for one of the most talked-about meetings in recent Scottish political history.
Salmond arrived at the home of Sturgeon accompanied by Geoff Aberdein, his former chief of staff, and Duncan Hamilton, an ex-SNP MSP who now works as an advocate.
The trio were there to speak with the First Minister and her chief of staff.
Who said what at the meeting is contested.
Salmond and Sturgeon spoke privately in the kitchen while the others remained in the living room.
The First Minister said yesterday it was at this moment her predecessor produced a letter to him from Scotland’s top civil servant, outlining the complaints made against him.
She told MSPs this was the first time she had read details of the allegations. “I was experiencing a maelstrom of emotions,” she said.
“I had been told something pretty shocking by Alex Salmond, and there were a number of things in my head – a very strong instinctive view that I couldn’t and shouldn’t intervene.”
Salmond last week claimed Sturgeon had told him at the meeting she was willing to intervene in the complaints process – a claim backed up by Hamilton and Aberdein.
But Sturgeon refuted this. She said: “I did make it clear I would not intervene.”