SNP MAY CROW, BUT SHE’S FAR FROM OFF THE HOOK
YOU’LL have noticed that after an almost silent few weeks, the SNP has been gloating these past 24 hours, shouting from the rooftops that Nicola Sturgeon is supposedly in the clear. But the detail of the report by James Hamilton on ministerial code breaches tells a different story. He says it was ‘regrettable’ that the First Minister supposedly forgot a secret meeting with Alex Salmond’s former chief of staff, Geoff Aberdein.
He found Mr Aberdein’s account ‘credible’ over those meetings and the leaking of a complainant’s name, directly contradicting the story Nicola Sturgeon has set out.
Mr Hamilton raises serious questions for key figures in the Scottish Government to answer over the handling of the investigation and the subsequent judicial review.
He also states Nicola Sturgeon’s meeting with Alex Salmond ‘could not in my opinion be characterised as a party meeting’, the opposite of what the First Minister claims.
Despite all these findings, Mr Hamilton concluded no breach of the code occurred.
But cast your mind back a few weeks. After Sturgeon’s evidence session at the Scottish parliament committee investigating the handling of sexual harassment complaints, the SNP came out hollering that the First Minister had exonerated herself.
It claimed she had put in such a magnificent performance she was now beyond question – only for more and more revelations about the Alex Salmond scandal to break. More damning legal advice was published. More allegations of cover-ups followed.
Suddenly, the SNP was on the back foot again, after we had been told Nicola Sturgeon had no more questions to answer.
WELL, despite the SNP’s latest bout of glee that Sturgeon might have managed to wriggle free, we are still awaiting the publication of the second inquiry on how Nicola Sturgeon handled this whole sorry affair. We can’t comment on the findings of the report before it’s published, but let’s just say, from all the reporting of it, Nicola Sturgeon is not in the clear. Far from it. And you can tell how this report might go from how the SNP has reacted to it. The party is desperately trying to discredit it in any way it can.
So ahead of the publication of the second Salmond report, let’s go over what Nicola Sturgeon had to say about both inquiries before they were published.
On January 17, 2019, she said it was ‘important to respect the work of the inquiries and the decisions that they take’.
On the same day, she said: ‘I now intend fully – as the First Minister – to respect the work of the various investigations that have been established.’
She went even further, grandstanding that: ‘People cannot call for inquiries and then refuse to respect the work of those inquiries. I will respect the work of those inquiries.’
Finally, just 11 days ago, she claimed to have ‘a determination to learn any and every lesson that any one of the inquiries tells us that the Scottish Government needs to learn’.
So until she heard what the inquiry report might say, she was resolute that its decisions would be fully respected.
Now that she thinks it might not deliver the result she wants, her story has changed.
It’s not the only thing that has changed. Apparently, Sturgeon’s principles have too.
When she was in opposition, years ago, Nicola Sturgeon spoke in favour of a motion of no confidence against a Scottish Government minister, labour’s Sam Galbraith.
Back then, an inquiry did not find that Galbraith had misled parliament. But Nicola Sturgeon claimed he had to go anyway. She said, bold as brass: ‘I want Sam Galbraith out of office, not off the hook.’ She claimed he had to go to restore ‘democratic accountability’. It was a matter of ‘principle’.
This is the reality – the First Minister is in favour of accountability for everyone except her and the SNP. She will support honesty and truthfulness as long as she’s not the one asked to tell it straight.
So really, by bringing forward this Vote of No Confidence, we are only asking that Nicola Sturgeon live by the principles she once believed in.
For the sake of Scotland, I believe she must go now, before more damage is done to the reputation of our parliament. By doing so, we would be able to get the focus back on rebuilding Scotland and recovering from this pandemic.
This scandal will forever be a damning stain on Nicola Sturgeon’s record but if she went now, her legacy would recognise that at the last minute, she did the right thing.
But I am under no illusions. The First Minister will not lead by example.
ANOTHER key part of the James Hamilton report states that ‘it is for the Scottish parliament to decide whether they were in fact misled’. So we will still bring forward a Vote of No Confidence, to let the Scottish parliament have its say.
If the Greens let the SNP get away with it, as they did when we brought a Vote of No Confidence in John Swinney, I hope voters will not.
On May 6, I hope they will unite behind the strongest opposition party, the one that has called out Nicola Sturgeon for everything she has done wrong, time and again.
We can send a message that Sturgeon doesn’t get to pick and choose when to respect the will of the parliament.