SALMOND STUR FRY
First Minister under attack in sex case inquiry
ALEX Salmond launched a blistering attack on Nicola Sturgeon yesterday as he claimed Scotland’s “leadership has failed”.
The ex-First Minister accused his successor of using a Covid press conference to “effectively question the result of a jury” which cleared him of sex assault charges.
The accusation came as he gave an opening statement to an inquiry into the Scottish Government’s unlawful probe of sexual harassment claims against him.
Last year the ex-MP, 66, was acquitted of 13 sex assault charges, which he had strongly denied.
Separately, the Court of Session ruled the Scottish Government’s probe into him was “tainted by apparent bias” after it emerged the investigating officer had prior contact with two of the women who filed complaints. Mr Salmond who gave evidence to the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints Committee, said failures of leadership surrounding the investigation into his conduct were “many and obvious”.
He said: “The Government acted illegally but somehow nobody is to blame. Scotland hasn’t failed, its leadership has failed.”
Ms Sturgeon has accused her former mentor of levelling “wild, untrue and baseless claims” about a conspiracy against him.
Mr Salmond said the committee had been “systematically deprived of evidence”, claiming “deliberate suppression of information inconvenient to the Government”.
He said if it can be proved Ms Sturgeon continued with the Government’s Court of Session battle despite official warnings it would fail because an investigation had been carried out unlawfully, she would have broken the Ministerial
Code. If so, she would be expected to resign.