The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
FM’s inability to remember talks ‘absurd’
Nicola Sturgeon’s fa i lure to remember a meeting at which she was told about sexual misconduct allegations against Alex Salmond has been branded “absurd”.
At First Minister’ s Questions, Ms Sturgeon was told her claim that she had forgotten about the meeting with Mr Salmond’s former chief of staff was “beyond belief ”.
Conservative Holyrood leader Ruth Davidson accused the SNP of taking the public for “fools” and asked the first minister if she thought there should be a judicial inquiry into “the scandal”.
Ms Davidson went on the attack shortly after the publication of a letter from Mr Salmon d’ s lawyer, which accused Ms Sturgeon’s government of “trying tom align” the former first minister ’s reputation.
Ms Sturgeon found herself under fire the day after she had submitted evidence to the Holyrood inquiry examining the Scottish Government ’s botched handling of harassment claims against Mr Salmond.
In a 15-page document given to the inquiry, the first minister said she forgot about a meeting she had with Mr Salmond’s former aide, Geoff Aberdein, on March 29, a few days before Mr Salmond came to her house on April 2 to tell her about the allegations.
In her e vidence, Ms Sturgeon said she thought the meeting with Mr Aberdein did “cover the suggestion that the matter might relate to allegations of a sexual nature”.
The fact that that meeting took place came to light in Mr Salmond’s criminal trial earlier this year, when the former SNP leader was cleared of all sexual assault charges.
Ms Sturgeon failed to mention it when she informed MSPs in January last year about various meetings with Mr Salmond and what she knew about the claims against him – an omission that has led to claims she misled parliament.
At First Minister’ s Questions, Ms Davidson said: “I have looked at that first minister’s question time, when we talked about the Arctic strategy, which is not something to cause anyone to forget sexual assault allegations. That does not even bear the lightest scrutiny – it is beyond belief.
“An account of that meeting that the first minister had with Mr Salmond’s chief of staff has been published. I will read it out. ‘ The conversation was around the fact of the complaints, without discussing the specifics of them. There was discussion about the investigation, and the process of it’.
“I ask again: does a meeting that involves a discussion of the investigation and the process of that investigation, and the fact of the complaints against a former first minister sound to the current first minister like the kind of thing that she would not remember?”