First Minister faces calls to resign ahead of testimony
NICOLA Sturgeon faces the fight of her political life today amid mounting evidence she misled the Scottish Parliament over the Alex Salmond affair.
The First Minister, who is due to testify to MSPS for five hours, was last night urged to resign after her previous written evidence was directly contradicted by two leading SNP figures.
Two former special advisers, one a former MSP who is now an advocate, challenged her account of meetings at the heart of claims that she lied to Holyrood.
The Scottish Tories said they planned a no confidence vote in Ms Sturgeon unless she resigned.
However the First Minister’s office said she would address all the issues in her evidence today.
Her advisers also played the Covid card, saying that calling a no confidence vote “in the middle of a pandemic”, before she had spoken, was “utterly irresponsible”.
The Scottish Government was also under fire after releasing legal advice on its doomed defence of the legal action brought against it by Mr Salmond in 2018.
It showed senior lawyers had warned for months that there was a “very serious” problem with the
Government’s case, but it pressed on regardless.
It appeared the Government’s top law officer, the Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC, had been a key factor in ministers carrying on, despite warnings from external counsel.
In a potentially devastating development, two of Ms Sturgeon’s former advisers challenged her version of two 2018 meetings about sexual misconduct claims involving Alex Salmond.
They also said a Scottish Government official had given the confidential name of a complainer against Mr Salmond to one of his associates.
One eye witness, an advocate, claimed Ms Sturgeon offered to intervene in the Government investigation of the claims, something she has denied to Parliament.
The testimony supports Mr Salmond’s allegation that Ms Sturgeon broke the ministerial code by repeatedly misleading MSPS, a resignation offence which she denies.
The statements were made by Kevin Pringle, the chief special adviser to Alex Salmond when he was FM, and advocate Duncan Hamilton, a former SNP MSP and later a special adviser.
The Holyrood inquiry into the Salmond affair is looking at how the Scottish Government bungled a probe into sexual misconduct claims made against Mr Salmond in 2018.
The former first minister had the exercise set aside in a judicial review, showing it was “tainted by apparent bias”, a Government flaw that left taxpayers with a £512,000 bill.
After the Government’s defence collapsed, Ms Sturgeon told MSPS she had three meetings with Mr Salmond in April, June and July 2018, while he was under investigation by her officials.
She insisted she took the meetings in her capacity as SNP leader, and so no Government records were kept.
She said the first she knew Mr Salmond was under investigation was when he told her himself at her home on April 2, 2018, and that she hadn’t known what he wanted to discuss.
However it later emerged Mr Salmond’s former chief of staff, Geoff Aberdein, had told her about the Government investigation in her Holyrood office, on March 29, 2018.
Mr Aberdein has also said the name of a complainer was shared with him by one of Ms Sturgeon’s officials.
Ms Sturgeon claims she “forgot” about this first meeting, despite the explosive content, and that it had been fleeting and opportunistic. Mr Salmond claims Ms Sturgeon broke the ministerial code by giving MSPS a false account of both meetings.
He claims the March 29 meeting was pre-arranged, and that Ms Sturgeon used it to set up the April 2 meeting with him, knowing he wanted to discuss the Government probe.
In a statement to the inquiry, Mr Pringle said: “I can confirm from my conversations with Mr Aberdein that he is in no doubt that a complainant’s name was shared with him.
“Again based on my contact with Mr Aberdein, I know he was clear that the purpose of the meeting on 29 March 2018 was to discuss the two complaints made against Mr Salmond.”
Mr Hamilton said he could confirm the same things based on conversations with Mr Aberdein at the time, and that the name of the complainant had been given to Mr Aberdein by “a senior government official” in March 2018.
He added: “I can confirm that I did attend the meeting on 2nd April 2018 in the home of the First Minister.
“Further, when we arrived, everyone in the room knew exactly why we were there. No introduction to the subject was needed and no one was in any doubt what we were there to discuss.
“I can confirm that the First Minister did offer to assist. We discussed mediation. My clear recollection is that her words were ‘If it comes to it, I will intervene’. From a legal perspective, that was the most important aspect of the meeting. I therefore remember it clearly. The First Minister did later change her mind. She was entitled to do so. That change was, however, a matter of surprise.”
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said: “There is no longer any doubt that Nicola Sturgeon lied to the Scottish Parliament and broke the ministerial code on numerous counts. The weight of the evidence is overwhelming. Nicola Sturgeon must resign.”
A spokesman for Ms Sturgeon said she will address all of the issues raised at the committee. But to call a vote of no confidence in the middle of a pandemic, before hearing a word of her evidence, is utterly irresponsible.”
The weight of the evidence is overwhelming