The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
McDonald was ‘thrown under bus’ in effort to snare Salmond: Claim
Ex- minister Mark McDonald was “thrown under a bus” to justify the creation of a Scottish Government policy that would snare Alex Salmond, it has been claimed.
Members of the Aberdeen Donside MSP’s inner circle believe his departure from government in November 2017 was linked to the handling of allegations against Mr Salmond.
They are convinced the timing of Mr McDonald’s resignation was designed to prevent or overshadow a story that was expected to run on Sky News about the former first minister ’s conduct.
Sources close to the former early years minister have spoken out following the publication of evidence to the Salmond inquiry, and they think his case should be considered by the Holyrood committee as part of its probe.
Emails released to the inquiry show that a senior official described Mr McDonald’s exit as part of the “justification” used for creating a new harassment policy to cover ministers and former ministers.
Evidence to the committee has also revealed Liz Lloyd, the first minister’s chief of staff, said she was first told Sky News might run a story about Mr Salmond ’s conduct at Edinburgh Airport on November 4, the same evening Mr McDonald resigned from government.
Mr McDonald previously said it was Ms Lloyd who first made it clear he would have to quit over a controversial social media message in which he told a woman that his autocorrect had almost changed a word to a sex act.
A source close to Mr McDonald said: “A number of people have said, both at the time and now, that the way Mark was treated was out of all proportion.
“The timeline of events here would suggest Mark was thrown under a bus to provide justification for a policy that was needed to investigate Alex Salmond.
“It is tragic that someone’s life and career were destroyed as part of a chain of events, when an apology at the time ought to have sufficed, given what the whole case was about.
“The committee has been tasked with looking at how the Scottish Government process in relation to Alex Salmond went so badly wrong.
“It might benefit them to look at how they engineered the justification for that process in the first place.”
Mr McDonald, a former Aberdeen councillor, worked as a parliamentary liaison officer to Mr Salmond, and also to
John Swinney, before being made childcare and early years minister in May 2016.
He was suspended from Holyrood for a month in 2018 after a standards watchdog ruled he sent Twitter messages to a woman in September 2016 which breached the code of conduct by creating an “intimidating, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment” for her, and that they “involved sexual harassment”.
The MSP, who will not seek re-election next year, apologised but has since accused former colleagues of trying to “grind me into the ground” in the aftermath, leaving him suicidal.
He declined to comment on the Salmond inquiry timeline.
On claims the Aberdeen Donside MSP was “thrown under a bus”, a Scottish Government spokesman said :“Mr McDonald submitted his resignation on November 4 2017 as a result of public concerns about his behaviour.”
Asked about evidence suggesting Mr McDonald’s case was used as justification for the new harassment policy, a government spokesman said: “As the permanent secretary has set out, the development of the procedure came as part of an existing programme of work to review our workplace policies informed by factors including the growth of the MeToo movement.
“It is incorrect to assert any link between the development of the procedure and actions considered under parliamentary procedure.”
Scottish Government permanent secretary Leslie Evans has denied to the committee the harassment policy was designed for use against Mr Salmond.