Former FM urges committee to order his lawyers to appear during inquiry

There was a sting in the tail of Mr Salmond’s evidence – when he concluded by urging the committee to order his lawyers to appear before them.

He said: “Hitherto you’ve been serving orders on a parliament on people who have been unwilling to give you information.

“Can I suggest that you use your powers under the Scotland Act – and it’s a matter for this committee – to serve that order on my solicitors, who are extremely willing to give you information?

“If you do so then I am sure you will get full co-operation under the law from my solicitors.”

Mr Salmond had earlier questioned why the Crown Office had raised concerns about parts of his written evidence at the point he was due to appear before the committee.

“I refute absolutely that anything we have submitted to anybody leaves a question mark on the anonymity of complainants,” he told the inquiry.

“And furthermore, the one paragraph that the Crown Office objected to... was objected to not on the basis of being jigsaw identification itself, but on the basis of information which had been previously published by this committee, which led to the jigsaw identification.

“What is beyond argument is that two weeks ago, the Crown Office did not consider anything in the submission that was made to this committee to be in danger of breaching anything.

“And for some reason, earlier this week, and the very point of coming before the committee, there was a change in position.

“Anybody who has seen that evidence, and everybody who has seen that evidence, cannot understand why anything in that evidence gives rise to a risk of identification.”