Salmond inquiry FM ‘forgot’ about meeting
NICOLA Sturgeon has suggested she failed to inform Holyrood of a meeting about Alex Salmond and sexual misconduct because she had “forgotten” about it. The First Minister said the meeting featured “allegations of a sexual nature” and left her feeling her predecessor was “in considerable distress” and might resign from the SNP.
However, despite the potentially significant implications for her party and government, Ms Sturgeon said that the meeting later slipped her mind.
NICOLA Sturgeon has suggested she failed to inform Holyrood of a sensational meeting about Alex Salmond and sexual misconduct because she had “forgotten” about it.
The First Minister said the meeting featured “allegations of a sexual nature” and left her feeling Mr Salmond was “in considerable distress” and might well resign from the SNP.
She said he also wanted to speak to her “urgently about a serious matter”.
However, despite the potentially seismic implications for her party and government, Ms Sturgeon claimed the meeting later slipped her mind.
“For context, I think the meeting took place not long after the weekly session of FMQS and in the midst of a busy day in which I would have been dealing with a multitude of other matters,” she said in written evidence to a Holyrood inquiry, even though her days are busy as a matter of course.
The Scottish Tories dismissed the account as a “pile of nonsense”.
Ms Sturgeon said it was only after she had told the Scottish Parliament, on January 8, 2019, about a series of other contacts involving Mr Salmond and sexual misconduct claims that she was “reminded of” the first meeting, either in late January or early February that year.
It was not until August this year that the Scottish Government admitted the first meeting had taken place.
Ms Sturgeon’s omission has led to accusations she misled Parliament, which she denies.
As part of her evidence, the First Minister also released 42 private Whatsapp messages between herself and Mr Salmond which she had not mentioned before to Parliament.
They showed her discussing Government business on the platform.
The inquiry is investigating how the Scottish Government bungled a probe into sexual misconduct claims made against Mr Salmond in 2018.
He had the flawed exercise set aside in a court challenge, leaving taxpayers with a £512,000 bill for his costs.
The inquiry yesterday published a raft of written evidence, including from Ms Sturgeon and her chief of staff.
In her 15-page statement, Ms Sturgeon said the investigation had caused her “a great deal of personal anguish, and resulted in the breakdown of a relationship that had been very important to me, politically and personally, for most of my life”.
She said she “did not seek to prevent or influence the proper consideration”
of complaints against the former first minister and denied any cover-up.
After the Government’s court defeat in January 2019, the First Minister told MSPS she had been in contact with Mr Salmond five times while he was being investigated by her officials.
However it emerged during Mr Salmond’s later criminal trial – at which he was acquitted of 13 counts of sexual assault in March – that there had been another relevant meeting.
Geoff Aberdein, Mr Salmond’s former chief of staff, met Ms Sturgeon at Holyrood on March 29, 2018, four days before she met Mr Salmond at her home on April 2.
Ms Sturgeon said: “I had forgotten this encounter had taken place.
“From what I recall, the discussion covered the fact that Alex Salmond wanted to see me urgently about a serious matter, and I think it did cover the suggestion the matter might relate to allegations of a sexual nature.”
She said she had a “lingering concern” that misconduct allegations would materialise against Mr Salmond because of a claim – which he denied to her in November 2017 – about an alleged incident at Edinburgh.
She said when Mr Salmond told her the claims he faced from civil servants she was “shocked” but “took no action” to avoid influencing the probe.
The Whatsapp messages showed Mr Salmond was keen to have the complaints resolved by arbitration.
In a new submission, Ms Sturgeon’s husband defended sending text messages backing police and prosecution against Mr Salmond.
SNP chief executive Peter Murrell admitted expressing himself poorly, but blamed his “shock, hurt and upset” over the party’s former leader being charged with sexual assault.
Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said: “We are expected to accept Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister renowned for her grasp of detail, has the memory of a sieve when she’s told her mentor of 30 years is facing allegations of sexual misconduct. It’s hard to know what’s more shocking – this evidence, the fact they think we’ll believe it or that this is the tip of the iceberg.”
I think it did cover the suggestion the matter might relate to allegations of a sexual nature