Nicola Sturgeon DID mislead Scottish Parliament over Alex Salmond evidence, committee concludes

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Nicola Sturgeon misled the Scottish Parliament over her handling of sexual harassment claims against Alex Salmond, an inquiry has sensationally concluded.

The First Minister was last night facing fresh calls to quit after a committee of MSPs said she ‘potentially breached the ministerial code’, which is generally considered a resignation offence. 

But she has stuck by her eight-hour testimony in front of the Holyrood Inquiry, instead accusing opposition committee members of playing politics and lashing out at the ‘partisan leaking’ of the report before publication.

The bombshell report came after Ms Sturgeon gave evidence about her role in the Scottish Government’s botched investigation into Mr Salmond in 2018. 

Ms Sturgeon had insisted she did not offer to intervene in the complaints process against Mr Salmond during a meeting with him on April 2, 2018.

Yet by a slim majority verdict of 5-4, the committee said that this was in ‘fundamental contradiction’ to testimony from Mr Salmond.

They say Mr Salmond’s account was corroborated by his legal adviser, Duncan Hamilton QC, who told the inquiry that Ms Sturgeon said: ‘If it comes to it, I will intervene.’

The report concludes: ‘Her [Ms Sturgeon’s] written evidence is, therefore, an inaccurate account of what happened and she has misled the committee on this matter. This is a potential breach of the ministerial code’.

Stepping up his calls for her resignation, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said: ‘We cannot set a precedent that a First Minister of Scotland can mislead the Scottish Parliament and get away with it. 

‘We have to trust that the First Minister will be truthful. We no longer can.’ 

MSPs did not go as far as to say Ms Sturgeon ‘knowingly’ broke the code, for which ministers are expected to resign, but the findings will put immense pressure on her position. 

Arriving at her home following the report’s leak, Ms Sturgeon said she stood by her eight hours of testimony.

She said: ‘What’s been clear is that opposition members of this committee made their minds up about me before I uttered a single word of evidence – their public comments make that clear.

‘So this partisan leak tonight before they’ve finalised the report is not that surprising.’ 

SNP MSPs account for almost half of the nine-strong committee.

They are four in number, while the Conservatives have two, and Labour, the Lib Dems, and Greens just one, broadly reflecting the total number of Holyrood MSPs.

Ms Sturgeon submitted written evidence to the Holyrood Inquiry as well as a gruelling eight-hour oral testimony earlier this month. 

The Holyrood Inquiry was tasked with investigating the Scottish Government’s bungled handling of sexual harassment complaints made against the former first minister.

A successful judicial review by Mr Salmond resulted in the investigation being ruled unlawful and ‘tainted by apparent bias’, with a £512,250 payout being awarded to him for legal fees. 

Mr Salmond was also later acquitted of 13 charges following a criminal trial. 

Ms Sturgeon is also awaiting a report from James Hamilton QC, who will rule specifically on whether she broke the ministerial code. 

Critics accuse her of breaking the code by misleading Parliament on when she first learnt of allegations against Mr Salmond. 

Ms Sturgeon previously claimed to have learnt about the allegations when Mr Salmond informed her at her home on April 2, 2018.

It later emerged she had had a meeting with Mr Salmond’s former chief of staff, Geoff Aberdein, on March 29 in her office.

Ms Sturgeon claimed to have ‘forgot’ this meeting and later explained she thought they were talking about harassment in ‘general terms’. 

She is also accused of failing to record crucial meetings, and pursuing the case against Mr Salmond despite lawyers telling her to drop it. 

Pressure has been mounting on Ms Sturgeon in the wake of her testimony before the inquiry. 

This week Tory MP David Davis used parliamentary privilege to reveal explosive messages which suggest Ms Sturgeon’s chief of staff, Liz Lloyd, was ‘interfering’ in the complaints process over the Salmond case. 

According to Mr Davis, the messages disclosed by a whistleblower ‘demands serious investigation’.

The message is alleged to have been sent by Judith Mackinnon to the Government’s communications director on February 6 2018, almost two months before the First Minister claims to have first known about the investigation of her predecessor.

Ruth Davidson today also accused Ms Sturgeon of attempting a ‘cover-up’ after new evidence emerged of warnings it could look ‘shifty’ if information continued to be withheld during Mr Salmond’s legal challenge. 

The Tories’ Holyrood leader asked Ms Sturgeon at First Minister’s Questions about an email exchange in which the Government was told not disclosing ultimately-damning evidence of prior contact could be ‘portrayed as a failed attempt at a cover-up’.    

According to the note released this week by the Government, external counsel argued it would be ‘better, more credible and less shifty-looking’ to adjust its defence against Mr Salmond’s legal challenge over the Government’s handling of sexual harassment complaints made against him.  

The First Minister has so far refused to preempt speculation of her future and said her priority is dealing with Covid.

In his testimony, Mr Salmond – once a mentor and close friend of Miss Sturgeon – accused his successor and senior SNP figures of orchestrating a concerted plot to bring him down.

Miss Sturgeon has denied this and insisted she was never out to ‘get’ Mr Salmond. 

She told MSPs at the inquiry: ‘I feel I may rebut the absurd suggestion that anyone acted with malice or as part of a plot against Alex Salmond. That claim is not based in any fact.’

‘Alex Salmond was one of the the closest people to me in my life – I would never have wanted to get Alex Salmond. I had no motive intention or desire to get Alex.’

The row at the heart of the SNP has reached a crescendo with just months to go before crucial Holyrood elections.

Ms Sturgeon is hoping to win a majority to give her a mandate to demand another independence referendum. 

But while recent polling shows the SNP clearly out in front, the odds of her forming a majority government hang in the balance. 

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said: ‘The Committee will publish its findings in the coming days and we will wait for that report. But we have already detailed that Nicola Sturgeon lied to the Scottish Parliament and for that, she must resign. All we’re waiting for is confirmation.’ 

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: ‘I am not going to prejudge the outcome of the committee report and we await its findings, but if it does conclude that the First Minister has misled Parliament and potentially breached the ministerial code then that is incredibly serious.’ 

A spokesman for Ms Sturgeon said: ‘The First Minister told the truth to the committee in eight hours of evidence, and stands by that evidence.

‘It is clear from past public statements that opposition members of this committee had prejudged the First Minister at the outset of the inquiry and before hearing a word of her evidence, so this partisan and selective briefing – before the committee has actually published its final report – is hardly surprising.

‘The question of the First Minister’s adherence to the ministerial code is being considered independently by James Hamilton and we expect to receive and publish his report soon.’ 

A Scottish Parliament spokeswoman said the committee is still considering its report. It is expected to be published in the coming days. 

Blow by blow, how Nicola Sturgeon’s eight-hour evidence before the Salmond inquiry unfolded  

Earlier this month, Nicola Sturgeon faced eight hours of brutal testimony before the committee investigating the Scottish Government’s botched handling of harassment complaints against Alex Salmond.

A lively session at Holyrood saw the First Minister fend off questions from MSPs with varying degrees of success.

Here, MailOnline looks back on the key flashpoints from the hearing in the wake of the inquiry concluding she misled Parliament.

Sturgeon dismisses Salmond’s claim of a plot  

Ms Sturgeon used her opening statement to rubbish Mr Salmond’s claims of a concerted conspiracy to bring him down and remove him from public life.

She rubbished the ‘absurd suggestion that anyone acted with malice or as part of a plot against Alex Salmond’. 

She said ‘that claim is not based in any fact’ and she had ‘no motive, intention or desire’ to ‘get’ her predecessor. 

The inquiry into Mr Salmond was launched after a number of women came forward with allegations of sexual harassment.

Ms Sturgeon told MSPs the idea that those involved were ‘concocting’ allegations was false, and they came forward of ‘their own free will’. 

But a successful judicial review by Mr Salmond resulted in the investigation being ruled unlawful and ‘tainted by apparent bias’, with a £512,250 payout being awarded to him for legal fees.

Mr Salmond was later acquitted of 13 charges following a criminal trial.

The Holyrood Inquiry instead puts the spotlight on Ms Sturgeon and her Government’s handling of the harassment complaints.

Indeed, at points the committee convener ticked off Ms Sturgeon for shifting the focus on to Mr Salmond, saying: ‘He’s not under trial, your actions are.’ 

MSPs demand Sturgeon provides critical evidence 

Ms Sturgeon came under mounting pressure to produce evidence relating to the investigation into Mr Salmond.  

Labour’s Jackie Baillie launched a blistering take-down of her failure to provide critical records of meetings and asked why no senior Government figures had resigned for the botched 2018 investigation into Mr Salmond.  

Ms Sturgeon has also been accused of a cover-up by Scottish Tories, who are forcing a vote of no confidence over claims she broke the ministerial code by misleading Parliament.

Ms Baillie said: ‘I don’t think I have felt quite so frustrated in my 22 years of being on parliamentary committees as with this one,’ she said.

‘We have waited for information from the Scottish Government, the stuff we have received has been partial and late.

‘The legal advice has taken two votes in Parliament and a motion of no confidence in John Swinney before we saw it last night at six o’clock. And there is information missing.’

Ms Baillie added: ‘We have waited till the 11th hour for the legal advice, we get partial legal advice.’

She asked Ms Sturgeon: ‘Do you understand the frustration of the committee? Do you understand that it looks as though the Government doesn’t want to give us critical information?’ 

Committee deputy convener also said Margaret Mitchell said that that it had ‘faced delay, obstruction, obfuscation’ from the Government in its requests for evidence, and said some documents remained outstanding.

Ms Sturgeon replied: ‘I would not accept the characterisation.’ 

Sturgeon says probe into Salmond ‘right thing to do’

The First Minister said she ‘deeply regretted’ how the investigation into Mr Salmond was handled but stood by the decision that a probe was necessary.

She added that the complaint procedures used to investigate Mr Salmond were drawn up in late 2017, in the wake of the MeToo movement, and were drafted by civil servants, not her. 

She said: ‘The Scottish Government despite the mistake it undoubtedly made, tried to do the right thing. 

‘As First Minister I refused to let the age old pattern of allowing a powerful man to use his status and connections to get what he wants.’ 

But she added: ‘That is not the same thing as saying I wanted this to be in the public domain.

‘The thought of this becoming public, and I would have to comment on it, horrified me. Absolutely horrified me. It made me feel physically sick.

‘I would have been very relieved if it had never come out into the public domain.

‘I had nothing to gain from it and only a lot of pain and grief associated with it.’

Sturgeon hits back at claims she broke ministerial code 

The Scottish Conservative group in Holyrood accuses the First Minister of breaking the ministerial code on three counts.

First, she misled Parliament on when she first learned of the allegations; she previously claimed April 2, but Mr Salmond says March 29.

Second, Ms Sturgeon failed to record the meetings she had with Mr Salmond concerning the allegations.

Third, Ms Sturgeon pressed ahead with the investigation against Mr Salmond despite being warned by her lawyers they would lose the case. 

Ms Sturgeon said that she was ‘relieved’ to be appearing before the inquiry to lay out her side of the story. 

She recalled harassment claims arising on March 29 during a meeting with Mr Aberdein, but said it was spoken about in a non-specific sense – and that she only realised it was in relation to Mr Salmond during a meeting with him on April 2.

Describing the April 2 meeting in her home with Mr Salmond, she said while he denied the complaints against him he gave his account of the incident which ‘he said he had apologised for at the time’.

Ms Sturgeon told MSPs: ‘What he described constituted in my view deeply inappropriate behaviour on his part, perhaps a reason why that moment is embedded so strongly in my mind.’

She said she did not ‘immediately record the April 2 meeting’ as she did not want it to become public and risk ‘breaching the confidentiality of the process’.

She added she had no intention of intervening in the investigation process and did not intervene, saying to do so would have been an abuse of her role. 

Addressing the judicial review, Ms Sturgeon said there was strong prospects of defending the challenge and as late as December 11, 2018, the advice given was it was ‘very clear there was no need to drop the case’.

She said she followed the advice of law officers so did not breach the ministerial code, as has been claimed.

Withering assessment of Salmond’s testimony

In her evidence the First Minister said she felt ‘sad’ she had come to blows with her old political mentor, which has ripped to the heart of the SNP ahead of May’s Holyrood elections. 

She told MSPs: ‘In all the legitimate considerations of this, sometimes the human elements of this situation are lost. Alex spoke on Friday about what a nightmare the last couple of years have been for him, and I don’t doubt that.

‘I have thought often about the impact on him. He was someone I cared about for a long time.’

However, she called into question the former first minister’s character for not recognising his inappropriate behaviour during his own appearance last Friday. 

Ms Sturgeon said: ‘I found myself searching for any sign that he recognised how difficult this has been for others too. First and foremost to the woman who believed his behaviour to be inappropriate.

‘But also to those who had campaigned with him, worked with him, cared for him and considered him a friend and now stand, unfairly accused of plotting against him.

‘That he was acquitted by a jury of criminal conduct is beyond question. But I know, just from what he told me, that his behaviour was not always appropriate.

‘And yet across six hours of testimony, there was not a single word of regret, reflection or a simple acknowledgment of that. I can only hope in private the reality might be different.’   

Ms Sturgeon, 50, served for seven years as Mr Salmond’s deputy before succeeding him as first minister in 2014.

She told MSPs that he ‘was a tough guy to work with’ and on occasions told him he had crossed a line with his behaviour.  

Their close relationship and strive for Scottish independence over many years also manifested in a close relationship between their staff.

Claims Sturgeon’s staff leaked identity of complainer to Salmond’s ally 

Ms Sturgeon said she regarded Mr Aberdein as a friend, but denied claims that one of her staffers had revealed the identity of one of the female accusers to him. 

Labour’s Jackie Baillie pressed the First Minister on the claims and called it an ‘extraordinary breach of confidentiality’ and, if proven, a ‘sackable offence’. 

But Ms Sturgeon said: ‘I am not accepting that that happened, therefore I am clearly not accepting that was authorised.’

The First Minister accepted this was a ‘matter of contention’.

She added: ‘Certainly in relation to one of the complainants Alex Salmond was pretty clear he had found out through investigations of Scottish Government social media accounts he had found out who that was.

‘And in relation to the other one, and this is the bit I am perhaps speculating on, it must have been the case when he got that letter, because he knew about the incident because he had apologised to the person.

‘So my assumption would be that he would have known that without anybody having to tell him. And I know from what he told me he found out the identity of the other one through his own investigations.’ 

A statement from Mr Salmond’s spokesperson released as Mr Sturgeon was giving evidence said: ‘Mr Salmond has lodged a formal complaint with the permanent secretary to the Scottish Government under the civil service code, on the conduct of the official who is alleged to have breached civil service rules, by disclosing the name of a complainant in the Scottish Government process.’

Claims Sturgeon’s staff leaked to Daily Record to bury bad press about her 

Further scrutiny focused on a leak to the Daily Record newspaper that that revealed details of the complaints against Mr Salmond.

Ms Sturgeon said: ‘I can tell you they didn’t come from me, or anyone acting on my instruction or request.’

And she said she had no knowledge of claims conveyed by Ms Baillie that the Daily Record was leaked the information to spike an upcoming story on Ms Sturgeon.

‘That is a new part of the conspiracy I’m hearing for the first time,’ Ms Sturgeon said. 

Ms Sturgeon was also confronted by Tory MSP Margaret Mitchell about her knowledge of 30 sexual harassment claims against five SNP ministers over the course of 10 years.

Responding after Ms Mitchell described the complaints, Ms Sturgeon said: ‘Forgive me, I don’t know exactly what you’re referring to in terms of five SNP ministers.’