‘The most shocking thing I have ever seen in my life’
Salmond wants sackings as he tells inquiry of ‘conspiracy’
ALEX SALMOND has called for a sweeping clear-out at the top of Scottish public life after a series of damning failures in the Government and party he once led.
In an unprecedented day at Holyrood, the former first minister said Nicola Sturgeon’s husband and other senior figures in the
SNP should lose their jobs for maliciously plotting against him.
He said secret text messages obtained by prosecutors, which he said showed them intruding on a police investigation, were “probably the most shocking thing I have seen in my life”.
Mr Salmond also said the head of Scotland’s prosecution service, the Lord Advocate James Wolffe, QC, and the lead civil servant in the Scottish Government, the Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans, should “consider their positions” over their conduct.
He said the First Minister’s chief of staff, Liz Lloyd, should also go.
Testifying before the parliamentary committee of inquiry into his legal fight with the Scottish Government, he said he had “no doubt” Ms Sturgeon had breached the ministerial code.
However, he stopped short of saying she should resign, instead saying that would be a decision for an independent probe running alongside the inquiry.
He said Scotland’s “leadership has failed”.
Mr Salmond said the Government had been guilty of secrecy as well as incompetence.
It had “systematically deprived” the inquiry of the evidence it had sought as part of a pattern of “deliberate suppression of information inconvenient to the Government”.
Opposition parties called his evidence “devastating” and said the SNP were “on the ropes”.
The Scottish Government said that Ms Evans, whose contract runs to 2022, would not be resigning, with a spokesman adding the First Minister “retains confidence in the permanent secretary and expects her to see out the remainder of her contract.”
Mr Salmond appeared for almost six hours before MSPS investigating the Government’s mishandling of sexual assault allegations made against him in 2018.
The former first minister had the exercise overturned in a judicial review in 2019 and was awarded £512,000 in legal costs.
He was later charged with sexual assault and cleared on all counts at a High Court trial last year.
In his opening remarks, Mr Salmond said the past two-and-ahalf years had been a “nightmare”, and he had been “astonished” when Ms Sturgeon queried the jury verdict earlier this week.
He said: “The failures of leadership are many and obvious but not a single person has taken responsibility, not a single resignation or sacking.
“The Scottish civil service has not failed, its leadership has.
“The Crown Office has not failed, its leadership has failed.
“Scotland hasn’t failed, its leadership has failed.”
He went on: “This committee, in my opinion, is a chance to assert what type of Scotland we are trying to create.
“Few would now dispute that our country is a better place for achieving our Parliament.
“However, the move to independence which I have sought all my political life and continue to seek must be accompanied by institutions whose leadership is strong and robust and capable of protecting each and every citizen from arbitrary authority.
“Such a principle is a central component of the rule of law, it matters to every person in Scotland as much as it always has done. It is the bedrock of our democracy, of justice and of fairness.”
Mr Salmond’s evidence covered the Government harassment procedures under which he was investigated, the judicial review, and the alleged plot against him.
He said the procedure had been rushed and unlawful from the start, and heaped blame on Ms Evans as its architect and overseer.
“The policy was not botched.
The policy was unlawful, unfair and tainted by apparent bias. Botched doesn’t cover it,” he said.
He said the Government had then been obstructive during the judicial review, failing to produce documents despite a duty of candour, leading to its external counsel threatening to resign, and the case becoming so weak it was “unstateable”.
Despite the Government knowing in October 2018 that the investigating officer in the case had been in prior contact with his accusers, despite the role being reserved to someone with no prior involvement, the case was not conceded until January 2019.
He criticised the Lord Advocate for not being more active on the matter and for blocking release of the Government’s legal advice to the inquiry, despite two votes to release it.
After the Government’s defence
collapsed, Ms Sturgeon told MSPS she met Mr Salmond three times while he was under investigation by her officials, insisting it was as SNP leader.
She said it was not until their first meeting, on April 2, 2018 at her Glasgow home that she learned, from Mr Salmond himself, that he was being investigated.
However she did not tell Ms Evans about any of this until June 6, the day before she met Mr Salmond a second time.
In his written evidence, Mr Salmond said Ms Sturgeon gave Holyrood a “false and manifestly untrue” account of their meetings, saying they were not, as she claimed, party matters, but about the Government probe, and that she knew this clearly, having teed up the April 2 meeting in her Holyrood office on March 29.
Mr Salmond told MSPS: “Whether she had any prior knowledge of it I cannot say, but I know that she knew on March 29.
“The meeting on March 29 was not impromptu, was not accidental, was not popping your head around the door.
“It was a meeting arranged for that purpose and the meeting on April 2 was not popping into Nicola and Peter’s home, it was a meeting arranged for that purpose.”
Parts of Mr Salmond’s written evidence about whether Ms Sturgeon misled Parliament about these meetings were deleted by the Parliament earlier this week after the Crown Office warned they could breach a court order related to his trial.
Mr Salmond said that was wholly wrong, as the material had been cleared by the Crown two weeks earlier, and was widely available elsewhere in the public domain.
Elsewhere in his written evidence, Mr Salmond named Mr Murrell, SNP chief operating officer Susan Ruddick, SNP Compliance officer Ian Mccann and Ms Sturgeon’s chief of staff, Liz Lloyd, as being part of a malicious effort to ruin him.
He said the Crown Office was sitting on evidence supporting his claims, which was gathered for his trial, and had threatened to prosecute him if he released it to MSPS.
He said: “We were presented with a memory stick by the Crown Office under disclosure. The next day we went through a series of messages. It was one of the most extraordinary days of my life.
“What they speak to is behaviour which I would never have countenanced from people I’ve known in some case for 30 years. In my opinion, there has been behaviour which is about not just pressuring the police, but pressuring witnesses, collusion with witnesses, we’re talking about the construction of evidence because the police somehow were felt to be inadequate in finding it themselves.
“On the 25th of August 2018, a police investigation started.
“When a police investigation starts these matters are for the police. They have the investigatory function. They don’t need
I know this committee has been hugely frustrated by the lack of information. You can see that the pattern of nondisclosure goes right through the judicial review, right through the criminal case and right into this committee
I think the Lord Advocate should be considering his position for this and a range of other issues
I believe the First Minister has broken the ministerial code. It’s not the case that every minister who breaks the ministerial code resigns. I have no doubt Nicola has broken the ministerial code, but it’s not for me to suggest what the consequences should be
assistance from Inspector Murrell or Sergeant Ruddick or Constable Mccann.
He said the “motivation” for the plot was to defeat the judicial review by having it overtaken by the police investigation and paused. Or if the review was lost, then the police investigation would eclipse it, “making sure the loss of the judicial review would be swept away”.
Ms Sturgeon accuses Mr Salmond of creating an “alternative reality” in which he is the victim of a bogus conspiracy.
In his written evidence, Mr Salmond complained no one had resigned.
Asked by Tory MSP Murdo Fraser if the Permanent Secretary should consider her position, Mr Salmond said: “If you’re asking my opinion, yes she should.”
Asked if the Lord Advocate should consider his position, Mr Salmond said: “I think the Lord Advocate should be considering his position for this and a range of other issues.
“Institutions have to be refreshed from time to time. When an issue like this arises, people have to take the consequences. If they don’t take the consequences then the institution itself comes under question.
“The Scottish Government, in terms of the administration of the civil service, needs new leadership, so does the Crown Office, and in terms of the people I name, because I have the documentary evidence to establish what they were involved in, then they should be facing the consequences as well.”
Asked if the First Minister should resign if she was found to have broken the ministerial code, Mr Salmond said:
“Not for me. I believe the First Minister has broken the ministerial code. It’s not the case that every minister breaks the ministerial code resigns.
“It depends on what is found and the degree by which the ministerial code has been broken.
“I have no doubt Nicola has broken the ministerial code, but it’s not for me to suggest what the consequences should be. It’s for the people who are judging that, including this committee.”
The inquiry has ordered the Crown to release the messages Mr Salmond mentioned by noon on Tuesday, the day before Ms Sturgeon gives evidence.
Mr Salmond suggested MSPS order his lawyers to hand it over instead by Monday.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said: “Devastating evidence has revealed SNP cover-ups, costly mistakes and terrible errors of judgement.
“The number of accusations of misleading Parliament and breaking the Ministerial Code are extraordinary.
“The entire leadership of the ruling party of government are on the ropes.”
Labour MSP Ms Baillie said: “The former first minister’s testimony poses serious questions for Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Government. It is clear he believes the First Minister failed to follow the Ministerial Code on multiple occasions andthe Permanent Secretary failed to follow the Civil Service code.”