SALMOND MUST SAY SORRY TO WOMEN
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NICOLA Sturgeon has told Alex Salmond to forget about working with her – unless he says sorry to his accusers.
The First Minister set out her terms in a withering attack.
NICOLA Sturgeon has demanded that Alex Salmond apologise to the women who accused him of harassment – or she won’t do business with him.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Record, the First Minister launched a withering attack on Salmond – saying he is only standing to be an MSP because he “can’t bear not to be on the stage”.
And she insisted she would lock her former mentor out of any political relationship unless he acknowledged his behaviour towards women was wrong.
On whether she could sit down with him at some point, she said: “If Alex had walked out of the court room and shown any sense of acknowledgement of what had been conceded in the courtroom, and the aspects of what he told me, maybe there is a foundation.
“The first step before anybody else can try to come to terms with that is that Alex has to himself show any sort of sign of acknowledging how people feel about how he behaved while he was first minister.
“He hasn’t done that and, therefore, I’m not sure what the basis would be for me to sit down with him and have that discussion.”
Salmond said last week he would like to do business with the SNP but Sturgeon is unmoved by the apparent peace offering.
She told us: “Alex wants to move on because it suits him now to say that he wants to move on.
“But there are a number of women out there who believe he behaved inappropriately towards them and he has shown, even now, no sense of reflection or contrition, or even an acknowledgement of that.
“And therefore, he may want to move on but there are people who I think will find it harder to do that.”
On his plans for a “super-majority” for independence – by returning pro-indy Alba MSPs on the second list vote – Sturgeon was scathing, saying: “At the end of the day, we’ve got to win independence fair and square. We can’t game, or cheat, our way to that.”
The Holyrood election looks set to be dominated by the battle between the pair.
Salmond, first minister between 2007 and 2014, was enraged when Sturgeon’s government investigated him for sexual misconduct – a probe that was ruled to be illegal.
He was then acquitted of sexual offences charges, after which he accused Sturgeon’s allies of plotting to have him imprisoned.
The row escalated last week when Salmond launched a rival pro-independence party, Alba, to contest the Holyrood election. The new party has already secured highprofile defections from the SNP.
Salmond has said Alba’s aim is to return a super-majority of pro-indy MSPs by backing the SNP in constituencies but hoovering up
List seats themselves. Critics fear the move could backfire with voters who may believe it is an attempt to rig the system.
Sturgeon, too, is sceptical, saying: “I think he will be telling himself he is somehow advancing the independence cause but I think he is standing because he loves the limelight and can’t bear not to be on the stage.”
The First Minister added that she believes there are two things necessary to win independence – winning a majority in Parliament and persuading a majority of the population to back the policy.
She said of Salmond’s party: “I think the real danger is that it could hinder that exercise”.
Sturgeon said: “One, people don’t like the idea that you are trying to game an electoral system but, secondly, once you start doing that you are effectively gambling with the outcome of the election and it could quite easily backfire and undermine the ability to get that
At the end of the day, we’ve got to win independence fair and square. We can’t game, or cheat, our way to that.
I trusted Alex Salmond for a long time. I have had my eyes open to aspects of his behaviour that fundamentally changed that.”
The people who he owes an apology to are the women that he behaved inappropriately towards.”
I still, to this day, am not exactly sure what it is he thinks he’s got to forgive me for.”
majority that then provides the foundation for an independence referendum.”
Asked if she trusted Salmond, she said: “I trusted Alex Salmond for a long, long time. He was a hugely important figure in my life.
“I have had my eyes open to aspects of his behaviour in the last couple of years that fundamentally changed that.”
On Salmond’s claim that he will not forgive her, she said: “I still, to this day, am not exactly sure what it is he thinks he’s got to forgive me for.”
Given the pain he caused her and her family in the storm surrounding the recent Holyrood Inquiry, can Sturgeon forgive him?
She said: “The people who he owes an apology to are the women that he behaved inappropriately towards.”
Looking back to last March, when Salmond was acquitted, Sturgeon said it was difficult to
describe her feelings on the verdict. She said: “I still struggle to really articulate and to process how I felt, and how I feel about that.”
If the SNP wins in May and she is returned as First Minister, Sturgeon said her top priority will be getting Scotland safely through the Covid crisis.
After that, she will focus on policies that “kickstart recovery”.
She also said a second independence referendum should be “part of recovery”, once the “acute crisis” has passed.
But while her preferred route to IndyRef2 is through a joint agreement with the UK Government, Salmond’s Alba party has flagged up alternative strategies.
He mentioned street demonstrations and appealing to international opinion as options.
Sturgeon is unimpressed by the suggestions. She said: “There is no shortcut here. We will only become independent when a majority of people in Scotland want it and are prepared to vote for it, and we are able to do that in a democratic, legitimate – and seen to be legitimate – process that then can win support and recognition in the international community.
She added: “If you don’t have all these components... then no so-called alternative actually delivers independence.”
In a final dig at a man she once admired, she said: “Any serious politician who tries to tell people there’s an alternative way of doing it that doesn’t tick all these boxes I think is misleading people.”