Salmond accuses top civil servant of ‘bias’ against him

Former first minister Alex Salmond has branded the behaviour of the current Scottish Government a “disgrace”, as he warned his legal action against ministers would have cost taxpayers more than £750,000.

Mr Salmond accused Scotland’s most senior civil servant, Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans, of having a “bias” against him as he insisted he will pursue the “serious matter” of her contacting two Scottish Government staff who raised harassment allegations against him.

He also said the “overwhelming likelihood” is that someone in the government leaked details of the case against him to the press with “the intention of damaging my reputation but with no regard whatsoever to the interests of the complainers”.

His comments come as a Holyrood committee continues to investigate the Scottish Government’s botched handling of claims against Mr Salmond – which saw the him win a legal payout of more than £500,000.

That was after the Court of Session ruled the government acted unlawfully, with the woman appointed to investigate harassment allegations having had dealings with the two female complainers.

In a submission to the committee on the Scottish government handling of harassment complaints, Mr Salmond said he is now aware that Ms Evans had had dealings with both women.

He said: “I am now aware from documents recently obtained by this committee that the permanent secretary met one complainer and phoned the other in mid process before contacting me on March 7 2018.

“I was astonished when I discovered this. There is nothing in the procedure which allows for this.”

He insisted this was “behaviour incompatible with the role of an impartial decision maker” and was also “further evidence of bias against me”.

He added: “The failure to disclose this meeting either in the civil or criminal case despite court orders is a serious matter which I intend to take forward with the appropriate authorities.”

Mr Salmond said he had “reluctantly” taken the government to court in “a legal process which will have cost upwards of £750,000”.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The points raised in this submission have been addressed previously.”

Alex Salmond.