Sturgeon self-referral enters new territory

It took Nicola Sturgeon 72 hours to announce her decision to refer herself for investigation since she revealed she would consider doing so at First Minister’s Questions.

Triggering a standards inquiry into her conduct through the Alex Salmond complaints process was in the end impossible to resist. It would nonetheless have been a difficult call, not least because it was her own lapse of judgment that forced it on the normally shrewd operator.

Somehow the Scottish Government failed to follow its own procedures, which led to the collapse of the Salmond investigation. In the same vein, Ms Sturgeon repeatedly met the man her government was investigating – and classified these meetings as non-government business, meaning there was no requirement for details to be officially recorded.

While Ms Sturgeon maintains she acted appropriately, the Glasgow MSP may become the first Scottish minister to be admonished for breaching the code under the reformed standards process set up a decade ago by her predecessor.

Ms Sturgeon defended herself last week saying there is no manual for what to do when a close former colleague comes under investigation in this way.

There is also no precedent for what a first minister should do if the panel of independent advisers find the code has been broken, a concern that will weigh heavily on Ms Sturgeon and her party.