FORMER FIRST MINISTER’S CONFESSION
FORMER First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday confessed that he has made ‘mistakes’ in his personal life – but insisted he has not sexually harassed anyone.
In an extraordinary, high-profile media offensive just hours after the bombshell revelation that he had been accused of sexual misconduct by two ex-members of staff, the former SNP leader admitted that he is ‘no saint’.
When asked if he regretted any past behaviour towards women, he admitted to having made some mistakes in his political and personal life.
And he refused to say if there had been any further complaints about his behaviour made by women in the past.
In a remarkable 40-minute press conference in his home town of Linlithgow, West Lothian, Mr Salmond insisted he had never sexually harassed women or engaged in any criminal behaviour.
He also revealed that he had met Nicola Sturgeon three times to discuss the allegations since they were first revealed to him – but refused to say if he urged the First Minister to make sure the probe can ‘go away’.
And he said his wife Moira remains firmly behind him.
Mr Salmond has taken the remarkable step of announcing a legal challenge against the Scottish Government’s decision to go public about the findings of an investigation into two complaints about his behaviour.
He told the BBC: ‘I have made many mistakes in my life, political and personal. But I have not sexually harassed anyone and I certainly have not been engaged in criminality. I’m no saint. I have got flaws, I understand that.’
Pressed whether he denied the two allegations ‘totally and fully’, he said: ‘I deny that I harassed anyone and I explicitly refute any suggestion of criminality.’
Asked by journalists later if the mistakes included sexual indiscretions, he said: ‘I’m not going to give you a list of the mistakes I think I have made.’
Pushed further on whether he had been told of any concerns about the nature of his
‘I certainly have not engaged in criminality’
conduct by other staff members, he said: ‘I’m here to talk about complaints that have been made against me, which I refute, and that is not a question that I can answer.
‘I’m not going to go into a list of things I did or didn’t do as First Minister, people I did or didn’t speak to. What I can say is that complaints made against me don’t have a foundation and I have never engaged in criminality.’
When asked if he regretted any behaviour towards women, he said: ‘As I said earlier on, and I will repeat; in my life I have made a number of mistakes, both political and personal. I shall keep them to myself.’
Mr Salmond refused to give any details about the complaints against him, although he thinks he knows who made them.
He said that he had ‘no animus’ with the former staff members as they ‘have a perfect right to complain’. He added that he has not been told their identity and claimed that ‘for many, many months I was totally in the dark about certainly the identity of one of the complainants’.
After Miss Sturgeon revealed her distress at the situation, Mr Salmond yesterday said he had discussed the matter in person with her on three separate occasions.
But he refused to say whether he had asked her to make sure the investigation was dropped.
The former MP said: ‘I’m not going to say what the private conversation between myself and Nicola Sturgeon was, but Nicola wasn’t part of the process.
‘Private conversations as far as I’m concerned are private conversations.
‘What I would say is the very legitimate concerns, reservations, arguments about the nature of this I have made to everybody at every possible opportunity. I also made it clear to the Scottish Government at every opportunity if you could address the obvious defects in this process I would like to take part.’
Mr Salmond said he has not seen the Scottish Government investigating officer’s report but has read a summary and Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans’ conclusions.
He also hit out at the breach of his confidentiality caused by the details being leaked to a newspaper. Asked who he thought was responsible for the leak, he said: ‘I don’t know, but I’ve asked Leslie Evans to launch an inquiry to find out because clearly that is a serious breach of confidence, even in the new terms of the Scottish Government, and I think she should do that as quickly as possible.’
Mr Salmond invited Scotland’s media to a series of interviews and a press conference at the Champany Inn, Linlithgow, the day after the remarkable allegations first emerged. It is known to be one of his favourite restaurants and has huge personal significance to him.
He took Nicola Sturgeon for dinner there in 2004 when he asked her to withdraw from the SNP leadership race and allow him to stand.
Speaking about his upcoming legal battle, Mr Salmond said: ‘If I’m wrong, and I fail in the Court of Session, then I’ve got no alternative but to answer the complaints openly and publicly, which I will.
‘But if I’m right, and this process is fundamentally flawed then those at the top of the administration of the Scottish Government – and I am talking about the administration, not politicians, the Permanent Secretary at the top of the administration... will have the most serious of questions to answer.’
When questioned on whether he had done anything to warrant an apology to his wife Moira, Mr Salmond said: ‘I will tell you one thing that has encouraged me: friends and family, today and in the case of Moira over the last few months, have been incredibly supportive.’
Asked if he had been drinking prior to the alleged incidents that led to the complaints, which the
‘Serious questions to answer’
Daily Record said happened in late 2013, he said: ‘I think we will just not answer that question. You shouldn’t suppose the timescale which was printed in the Daily Record. I am not confirming that.’
Pressed further on whether he used to drink too much while First Minister, he said: ‘I try to pursue my life as best I am able. I am not a paragon of virtue of any kind and I have never claimed to be.’
Mr Salmond said he had received many messages of support from his former colleagues and friends.
‘Interestingly, I have had a lot from civil servants saying they wish they had been able to give evidence,’ he added. ‘Of course, under the Leslie Evans procedure, I wasn’t allowed to talk to them.
‘It has been five months. If you had said to me, “Alex Salmond you are going to take the Scottish Government to court”, I wouldn’t have believed you.
‘And obviously it’s something I have done with the greatest of reluctance but I have been around politics for 30 years, I’m used to many situations and being under public scrutiny.
‘I’m here speaking up for my posi-
tion, but a lot of people involved in this are not – the people who made the complaints, their families, my family, my extended family.
‘To have this going on for this length of time hanging over us is a difficult situation for them.’
Mr Salmond said he was willing to spend money on the legal battle with the Scottish Government because he felt he had a ‘strong case’.
Pressed on whether there had been further complaints, he said: ‘As far as I know, there are no police investigations into me on any case I know of and I have not spoken to police on any matter like that, I think, ever.
‘I’ve already said, I’ve never sexually harassed anybody. I’ve made my statement and I’m sticking to it.’
Mr Salmond, who held the press conference in a wedding marquee outside the Champany Inn, with boxes of Champagne stacked next to him, insisted nothing about his life would change as a result of the complaints against him.
He intends to continue with his controversial chat show on the Kremlin-backed TV station RT, which earlier year was found to have breached broadcasting standards.
Last night an RT spokesman said: ‘This is a personal issue for Mr Salmond and all inquiries should be directed to him. The Alex Salmond Show will continue to air on RT at this time.’
In July, broadcasting watchdog Ofcom said Mr Salmond misled viewers in the first episode of The Alex Salmond Show, because four of six ‘audience tweets’ were sent by people connected either to him or the programme.
Ofcom concluded that the show was in breach of its code, and added it was ‘important that the content of current affairs programmes can be relied on by viewers’.