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Nicola Sturgeon’s written evidence to the investigation into the failed handling of complaints against Alex Salmond by his government has been released.
The prime minister said the investigation into her predecessor had caused her “great personal distress.”
However, he insisted that he “tried to do the right thing” and “did not seek to influence” the investigation.
Opposition parties have accused the Scottish government of “obstructing” the work of the Holyrood investigation.
Sturgeon said it was “outrageous” to be accused of not responding to questions when the committee had not released her written submission for more than two months after she submitted it.
- Read the full written presentation of Nicola Sturgeon
The MSP committee was created to investigate the government’s handling of two harassment complaints against the former prime minister, after he successfully challenged the complaints process in court.
In her written communication, dated August 4, but recently published, Ms. Sturgeon insisted that “in a very difficult personal, political and professional situation, I tried to do the right thing.”
The prime minister spoke to Salmond about the complaints five times during the spring and summer of 2018, but said he had not spoken to his former mentor since.
He insisted that “it was not intended to prevent or influence due consideration of the complaints.”
And he said that he had “acted in a way that in my opinion would better protect the independence and confidentiality of the investigation.”
Sturgeon also said he wanted to “reject in the strongest terms” any suggestion that he had conspired with or against Salmond, and said the government had a duty to investigate any complaint, regardless of who was involved.
Encounter ‘forgotten’
Sturgeon had previously insisted that the first time he learned of the complaints was at a meeting at his home in Glasgow on April 2, 2018.
However, during Salmond’s criminal trial in March 2020, in which he was acquitted of 13 counts of sexual assault, his former chief of staff Geoff Aberdein testified that he had met with Sturgeon in Holyrood days earlier, on March 29.
In her written communication, the prime minister confirmed that this was correct, but said that she had “forgotten that this meeting had taken place.”
She said: “The discussion covered the fact that Alex Salmond wanted to see me urgently on a serious matter, and I think it covered the suggestion that the matter could be related to allegations of a sexual nature.”
Sturgeon said he agreed to meet with his predecessor because he had the impression that “Mr. Salmond was in a considerable state of distress” and might be willing to resign his membership in the SNP.
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However, he insisted that “although I suspected the nature of what he wanted to tell me, it was Alex Salmond who told me on April 2 that he was being investigated, and what the details of the allegations were.”
Sturgeon said that while “working for Mr. Salmond could be challenging” and he had been involved in “tense situations,” he had previously had no “general concerns” about the culture of the government he ran and “certainly not about sexual harassment. “. .
But he said he had spoken to his predecessor about a media investigation into “allegations of sexual misconduct” in November 2017, and that while this ultimately came to nothing, “it left me with persistent concern that the allegations about Salmond could materialize at some point. ” “.
The convenor of the investigation committee, SNP MSP Linda Fabiani, had previously complained that she was “completely frustrated” by the lack of evidence and what she described as “obstruction” by the government, the SNP and Mr. Salmond.
Members of the opposition have accused Ms Sturgeon of retracting her promise to provide “whatever material” the committee requested, and a conservative MSP was expelled from the Holyrood chamber for saying the prime minister had “lied to parliament. “.
In angry exchanges in the parliamentary chamber last week, Sturgeon criticized suggestions that he was not cooperating with the investigation, saying the investigation “can call me anytime.”
