Poisonous feud threatens independence movement

For a decade, they were the indivisible duo who drove the quest for Scotland’s independence, steering their party — and themselves — to power along the way.

But in politics few friendships are forever, and that of Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and her predecessor and mentor, Alex Salmond, has not aged well — to the point that its breakdown is now threatening the independence movement just when its prospects seemed brightest.

The two giants of the Scottish National Party are locked in a bitter feud over the handling of accusations against Salmond that culminated in 2020, when he was tried on more than a dozen charges of sexual assault and found not guilty on all counts.

So vicious is the rift that some believe the fate of Scotland’s 314year union with England could rest on a dispute about what Sturgeon knew when about the accusations, and whether she has told the truth.

“For the SNP it is very serious,” said James Mitchell, professor of public policy at Edinburgh University, who pointed to Scottish Parliament elections in May and to Sturgeon’s hopes for gains in them to justify demands for a second Scottish independence referendum.

“This has happened at the point where the SNP is set to have good election results and when support for independence is at its highest,” Mitchell said. “In those circumstances you would expect the party would unite, whereas in fact it has not been so disunited in decades.”

The case is so explosive because Salmond said Sturgeon misled Scottish lawmakers about her role and has not given a truthful account of how she handled the accusations against him. If true, that would lead to calls for her resignation.

Sturgeon denies the claims and said that those close to her former friend and mentor are peddling conspiracy theories.

But like all the worst arguments, this one is personal.

Salmond feels his reputation was destroyed by the accusations against him, which dated to his time as first minister before 2014 and included one charge of attempted rape.

Some of his supporters think Sturgeon simply threw him to the wolves during a botched internal investigation of him in 2018, in her zeal to show zero tolerance of sexual harassment.

Others theorize she actively wanted to prevent his return to politics as a potential rival.