Focus on complaints failures, says Freeman

SCOTLAND’S Health Secretary yesterday tried to deflect attention from calls for Nicola Sturgeon to resign as she claimed the ‘most serious’ issue was the mistakes made in ‘handling’ complaints against Alex Salmond.

Jeane Freeman appeared to signal officials could be in the frame for the errors which led to the Scottish Government court defeat to the former First Minister.

The Government was forced to pay out more than £500,000 in taxpayers cash to Mr Salmond – with the outcome of its probe into two harassment allegations set aside. This was after a judicial review, brought by the former SNP leader, ruled that the probe had been unlawful and tainted by apparent bias.

The specific error leading to the collapse was that the investigating officer, Judith MacKinnon, had former contact with the two complainers.

Miss Freeman yesterday appeared on Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday ahead of the publication of two reports into the probes – the James Hamilton inquiry on whether Miss Sturgeon breached the ministerial code over her involvement, and a second report from the Holyrood committee into the botched probe.

A leaked part of the latter report by MSPs found that Miss Sturgeon had misled them during an evidence session.

Miss Freeman was asked whether Miss Sturgeon should resign if she is found to have breached the ministerial code over her involvement. She said: ‘The situation here is important, it’s serious. What’s most serious actually is that the Scottish Government made serious mistakes in handling and implementing the policy on harassment, and the people who have suffered most from that are the women who brought the complaints.’

She added: ‘The First Minister has led by example throughout and I think the public, particularly the public in Scotland, have seen how open and frank her leadership is, particularly over the past year when we’ve been dealing with the pandemic.’