Pressure on Sturgeon to quit after witnesses back Salmond
NICOLA STURGEON faced calls to resign last night after two witnesses in the Alex Salmond scandal corroborated his version of key events and provided damning evidence that she repeatedly misled the Scottish parliament.
In a potentially devastating development for the First Minister ahead of her appearance before a Holyrood inquiry this morning, a pair of former special advisers contradicted her claims about two meetings in 2018.
Ms Sturgeon has told the Scottish parliament she found out about her administration’s investigation into sexual misconduct claims against Mr Salmond only when he visited her home on April 2 2018 but she refused to intervene. Last week, during First Minister’s questions, she denied that the identity of one of the women making the accusations was shared with Geoff Aberdein, Mr Salmond’s chief of staff, “to the best of my knowledge”.
But Duncan Hamilton, a former SNP MP and a barrister, said the name of a complainant was given to Mr Aberdein by a senior official shortly after Mr Salmond was informed of the Scottish Government’s inquiry, on March 7 2018.
In a letter to the inquiry, he said “the fact that the government official had shared that information with Mr Aberdein was reported to me, and to Kevin Pringle, on a conference call”.
He was present at the meeting between Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon at her home and confirmed she “did offer to assist” him with her administration’s inquiry, only to change her mind.
Ms Sturgeon has told MSPS she refused to get involved but Mr Hamilton, said: “We discussed mediation. My clear recollection is that her words were ‘If it comes to it, I will intervene’.”
He contradicted Ms Sturgeon’s claim about when she knew about the allegations, stating that when Mr Salmond and his team arrived at her home, “everyone in the room knew exactly why we were there”.
Mr Pringle, the SNP’S former communications chief, also told the inquiry the name of a complainant was shared with Mr Aberdein during a meeting with a senior Scottish government official.
Both he and Mr Hamilton said a meeting between Mr Aberdein and Ms Sturgeon was arranged on March 29 – four days earlier – to discuss the allegations and set up the visit to her home.
Ms Sturgeon has claimed she “forgot” about this first meeting, despite the extraordinary content.
In a third blow to the First Minister last night, the Scottish Government finally published emails showing it continued a legal fight with Mr Salmond despite its lawyers advising it was likely to lose. They showed a senior lawyer was “very concerned indeed” about the judicial review case in October 2018, with the SNP government’s counsel urging it to admit defeat by Dec 6.
In a damning joint note from Roddy Dunlop QC and Christine O’neill on Dec 19, they relayed their “extreme professional embarrassment” and said the case was becoming “unstateable”.
They said they suffered after they gave the court assurances that “turned out to be false as a result of the revelation of further (government) documents, highly relevant yet undisclosed.”
By Dec 28 the lawyers had threatened to quit the Scottish government case which then collapsed a few days later.
The SNP administration Mr Salmond had once led had to pay his legal fees of more than £500,000 after admitting its investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations had been unlawful.
Ms Sturgeon last night stood by her testimony and denied breaking the code of conduct. She was said to have spent the weekend and Monday preparing
for her inquiry appearance. However, the Scottish Conservatives said they would table a motion of no confidence in her for breaching the ministerial code by misleading parliament.
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, said: “Credible witnesses have now backed up Alex Salmond’s claims and the legal advice shows the Government knew months in advance that the judicial review was doomed but they still went on to waste more than £500,000 of taxpayers’ money.”
Mr Salmond won the judicial review in 2019 after Lord Pentland ruled the Scottish Government’s investigation into the sexual misconduct claims against him was “procedurally unfair” and “tainted with apparent bias”.
The case was abandoned on the eve of a Court of Session hearing after the Government admitted it had breached its own guidelines.
The committee’s inquiry into the debacle was kick-started after Mr Salmond was acquitted of sexual assault charges at the High Court last year.
He was last week adamant that Ms Sturgeon knew about the allegations on March 29, 2018 and pointed out he would not “pop in” to her Glasgow home four days later as he lives 200 miles away in Aberdeenshire.
He said Mr Pringle and Mr Hamilton could corroborate his version of events, and the committee wrote to the pair.
In his reply, Mr Hamilton said: “I confirm that I am aware of the identity of the government official who gave the name of the complainant to Mr Aberdein.” He said he had not heard of the woman but Mr Pringle had. He said the meeting in Ms Sturgeon’s parliamentary office on March 29 was “for the purpose of discussing the complaints”.
He said he was willing to give the evidence under oath if necessary.
Mr Pringle, who was Mr Salmond’s chief spin doctor as first minister, wrote: “I can confirm from my conversations with Mr Aberdein that he is in no doubt that a complainant’s name was shared with him ....
“Second, based again on my contact with Mr Aberdein, I know he was clear that the purpose of the meeting on March 29, 2018 was to discuss the two complaints that had been made against Mr Salmond.”
A spokesman for Ms Sturgeon said she “will address all of the issues” and added: “To call a vote of no confidence in the middle of a pandemic before hearing a single word of the First Minister’s evidence, is utterly irresponsible.”