NATIONALIST WAR OVER WOMEN
Sturgeon says Salmond’s comeback is making life hard for complainers and sending ‘wrong message’
ALEX Salmond’s return to frontline politics is making life harder for the women who made complaints against him, Nicola Sturgeon has claimed.
The First Minister yesterday said she knows some of those who made allegations, as she once again questioned her predecessor’s fitness to return to political office.
Earlier this week, Miss Sturgeon categorically ruled out working with Mr Salmond. Yesterday she suggested that talk of his return to the Scottish parliament was premature.
She said: ‘We don’t want to spend too much time talking about a party that doesn’t look, on early polling, that it is going to get any MSPs elected.’
However, she went on to warn Mr Salmond he could not ‘bulldoze’ his way to independence, claiming his intervention instead ‘hinders’ the nationalist cause.
Miss Sturgeon also suggested that his new Alba Party should not be allowed to take part in televised debates.
And she made a point of highlighting that former Ukip boss Nigel Farage had given Mr Salmond his seal of approval.
In a damning broadside, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘There are big questions about the appropriateness of Alex Salmond’s return to public office.
‘I know some of the women that made complaints against him and I therefore know that having him put himself forward like this is not making things easier for them.’
Miss Sturgeon added: ‘If you have somebody who has behaved, by in some ways his own admisin sions, inappropriately towards women – albeit not criminally, and nobody is arguing that – he can’t even seem to accept that that was inappropriate, let alone apologise for it.
‘You know, I do think that those pose risks of sending entirely the wrong message to people, and to women in particular.’
As two of Scotland’s most successful politicians in recent history, Miss Sturgeon and Mr Salmond were close friends and colleagues for almost 30 years.
However, that relationship ended after the former SNP leader was accused of harassment by two women – prompting a Scottish Government probe.
Mr Salmond successfully challenged this in court, with the investigation branded ‘unlawful’.
In March last year, he was cleared of 13 sexual assault charges, including attempted rape, at the High Court in Edinburgh.
The Alba leader is set to take fresh legal action against the Scottish Government.
Last year, Mr Salmond said he had ‘never attempted to have non-consensual sexual relations with anyone in my entire life’.
Earlier this week, he was quizzed by BBC Radio 4 over his admission court to having a ‘sleepy cuddle’ with a woman and asked if he had reflected on his behaviour.
Mr Salmond said: ‘Most people in Scotland, after two court cases, a jury verdict, a majority of women on that jury in front of a female judge and three inquiries over the last three years, would tend to accept the verdict of a jury.
‘The accusations against me were part fabrication, part exaggeration, but the most significant thing is not what I said or reflected on, but the most significant is the outcome of the jury.’
Announcing the formation of Alba last week, former First Minister Mr Salmond said he wanted to create a ‘super-majority’ for independence in Holyrood.
However, the first poll carried out since then found only 3 per cent of Scots plan to vote for the party.
Polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, said the findings suggest Alba may ‘just’ get one seat in the North East – allowing Mr Salmond to return, but none of the other 31 candidates.
The Survation poll also found 71 per cent of Scots view Mr Salmond unfavourably.
Miss Sturgeon has questioned Mr Salmond’s motivations for returning to the political front line and yesterday condemned his attempts to ‘bulldoze’ his way to independence.
She said the formation of Alba could ‘jeopardise the SNP majority that many independence supporters would want to see’.
She added: ‘Beyond that, I am a believer. It is just a statement of fact that we have to persuade people to support independence, win people’s trust, build confidence in independence, which I think we’ve been making progress on. You can’t bulldoze your way to independence.’
MPs Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey have quit the SNP to join Mr Salmond in standing for the Alba Party next month.
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I suspect, knowing him as I used to, that Alex would have been probably wanting and expecting a bigger defection of elected representatives from the SNP to his new party.’
‘Questions about appropriateness’