UNRIVALLED REPORTS AND ANALYSIS
SCOTLAND has been failed by its leaders and they should resign from their privileged seats of power, Alex Salmond claimed yesterday.
The former SNP leader launched an unprecedented attack on those holding the highest offices and suggested they were unfit to lead the country to independence.
In dramatic scenes at Holyrood, he took a swipe at Nicola Sturgeon, senior civil servants and the Lord Advocate during six hours of damning evidence.
In his opening statement to the Holyrood inquiry, Mr Salmond hit out at the Government’s botched handling of harassment complaints against him in 2018, and especially the use of a new policy which allowed the chasing of former ministers.
He claimed that a ‘malicious’ plot had been devised in an effort to sweep away the Government’s ‘cataclysmic’ loss of an ‘unlawful’ legal battle.
In a long-awaited appearance at the Scottish parliament, Mr Salmond also raised serious concerns over the suppression of evidence and the censoring of a submission he had made to MSPs.
He told the inquiry: ‘The failures of leadership are many and obvious but not a single person has taken responsibility, not a single resignation or sacking, not even admonition.
‘The Scottish Civil Service has not failed, its leadership has. The Crown Office has not failed, its leadership has failed.
‘Scotland hasn’t failed, its leadership has failed.’
Mr Salmond was speaking for the first time publicly since being acquitted in March last year of 13 sexual assault charges – including attempted rape.
The Holyrood inquiry is examining the Scottish Government’s botched handling of harassment complaints against him.
A judicial review found the investigation had been unlawful and ‘tainted by apparent bias’. Mr Salmond was awarded more than £512,000 in taxpayer cash to cover his legal fees.
Mr Salmond said that despite this devastating and costly ruling he had heard of ‘promotions or extensions of contracts, and self-serving defences’ rather than consequences for those involved.
He added: ‘The Government acted illegally but, somehow, nobody is to blame.’
‘A calamitous occurrence’
‘Assist in public understanding’
Mr Salmond levelled particularly harsh criticism at Scotland’s most senior civil servant, Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans, and told the committee: ‘People make mistakes, in terms of the Civil Service, just like anybody else, government ministers, politicians. It happens all the time.
‘But in terms of the Richter scale of mistakes, this is right up there, this is a very big one.’
Mr Salmond has called for Mrs Evans to ‘consider her position’ over the botched probe and the Government’s refusal to concede the judicial review until January 2019, despite legal advice that procedures had not been followed properly.
Officials were eventually forced to concede defeat after it emerged investigating officer Judith Mackinnon had been in contact with complainants before they lodged official complaints with the Government.
Mr Salmond said he believed Mrs Evans had ‘responsibility for the [harassment] policy, for not conceding timeously in the judicial review and for a range of other things that could have been done’.
He added: ‘Somebody has to accept responsibility for a calamitous occurrence and defeat.’
He said Mrs Evans and Lord Advocate James Wolffe should consider their positions.
In written evidence to the committee, Mr Salmond said that he believes he was the victim of a ‘deliberate, prolonged malicious and concerted effort among a range of individuals within the Scottish Government and the SNP to damage my reputation, even to the extent of having me imprisoned’.
Mr Salmond said the root of what he claims was a conspiracy could be found in efforts to try to prolong the doomed judicial review process in the hope it would be overshadowed by his criminal trial and possible conviction.
He said: ‘This inquiry is not about me, I have already established the illegality of the actions of the Scottish Government in the Court of Session, and I have been acquitted of all criminal charges by a jury in the highest court in the land.
‘The remit of this inquiry is about the actions of others. It also requires to shine a light on the activities of the Crown Office.’
Mr Salmond has claimed there has been a ‘deliberate suppression of information inconvenient’ to the Scottish Government during investigations arising from complaints made against him.
He told the committee: ‘You can see that the pattern of non-after disclosure goes right through the judicial review, right through the criminal case and right into this committee.’
Most recently, a submission sent to the inquiry by Mr Salmond was pulled from their website hours being published following a warning from the Crown Office over the content.
It was feared it could breach a contempt of court order in place to prevent the identification of complainants.
Asked if he had ever heard of such a thing happening during his long career as both an MSP and an MP, Mr Salmond said: ‘No, it is intolerable.’
A Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service spokesman said: ‘The Lord Advocate will appear before the committee next week to assist in public understanding of his role and the actions of the Crown Office in relation to this case. Scotland’s prosecutors have acted independently and in the public interest at all times when considering matters related to this case.’
Last night, a Scottish Government spokesman said Mrs Evans would not resign, adding: ‘Scottish Government civil servants have acted professionally throughout on behalf of ministers and in line with the Civil Service code and values of integrity, honesty, impartiality and objectivity.’
The spokesman added: ‘The Scottish Government had a duty to investigate the serious and specific complaints against Alex Salmond.’