Macaskill: ‘Misconduct will not be tolerated’
surrounding the SNP leadership, not one blemish must be allowed to be cast upon the party leader and First Minister,” Mr Macaskill writes.
“She is to be whiter than white and the SNP purer than the driven snow. Misconduct will not be tolerated and any who might taint her are to be driven out, whether by leaks to the press or overt actions.”
Mr Salmond has demanded an inquiry into leaks about details of his case that emerged in the press and believes these came from inside the Scottish Government.
However a spokesman for the government confirmed for the first time yesterday that a review had taken place into the handling of Mr Salmond’s data and found “there is no evidence of any data breach”. There are now also questions for senior figures in the SNP to answer over the pattern that has emerged for turning on party figures who are seen to have transgressed, Mr Macaskill writes.
“Some in senior positions within the SNP are now getting form for being judgmental, if not injudicious, and certainly downright prejudicial,” he states. “Besides Alex Salmond, there have been the cases of Mark Mcdonald and Michelle Thompson.”
Mr Mcdonald quit as children’s minister in November 2017 after sending a text message which contained a reference to a sex act. He was later suspended by the SNP and subsequently quit the party, but now sits in Holyrood as an independent.
But he was “thrown to the wolves” according to Mr Macaskill and treated like a “Scottish Hannibal Lecter”.
Although Mr Macaskill accepts that measures may sometimes be needed to protect the leader, he says there is also a “wider duty” to the other members.
“Some appear to have acted with no consideration for the rights of others and may even have carried out actions that were prejudicial and unfair. That needs to stop.
“Loyalty needs not just to be earned but shown, and that has been remiss lately within the SNP leadership.”
Mr Macaskill has previously raised questions over the fact that Ms Sturgeon leads that party, while her husband Peter Murrell is chief executive.
Ms Sturgeon’s closest political
adviser, former SNP media chief Liz Lloyd, was scheduled to give evidence at Mr Salmond’s judicial review, before the case was settled by the Scottish Government.
Ministers dismissed any link between this and the case being dropped. The botched Scottish Government inquiry into Mr Salmond is likely to cost taxpayers somewhere in the region of £500,000 in legal bills after he was awarded full costs.
He has also declared he is considering suing the government he once led. Mr Macaskill also dismissed claims from the Scottish Government that the other grounds of Mr Salmond’s case was rejected by the Court of Session.
“The court never got round to considering them as their case fell at the first hurdle,” he said.
“The others would very likely have followed suit.”
Mr Salmond is still facing a criminal inquiry, but the former justice secretary called on Police Scotland to “speed up” their investigation.
“The sooner the police file their report into the allegations that were referred to them and cease crawling all over the former First Minister’s entire life history the better.”
Mr Salmond’s court victory this week has marked a new low in relations between him and former protege Ms Sturgeon after he called on the country’s top civil servant Leslie Evans to resign in the aftermath of the Scottish Government’s defeat.
But the First Minister later told MSPS at Holyrood she had full confidence in Ms Evans.