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A special Holyrood committee will instruct Alex Salmond’s attorneys to release government documents believed to show concern over alleged interference among senior public officials.
The committee investigating the failed government investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Salmond agreed to send his lawyers an order under Scottish Act 1998 requiring the disclosure of such documents.
There are suggestions, which have yet to be substantiated, that the documents may show that senior officials were unhappy with the role of another government official. The committee’s MSPs said the government had not provided them with those documents; Salmond has indicated that his attorneys will provide them if ordered.
The move came as Holyrood was preparing to release a statement written by former official Lorraine Kay, in which she claimed that one of Salmond’s allies claimed that the name of an official who accused the former prime minister of sexual harassment was leaked.
Kay, who worked in Salmond’s private office for five years, said Geoff Aberdein told her that a senior government official leaked the name to him in early March 2018 and that he shared that name with her.
Aberdein, Salmond’s chief of staff while he was prime minister, alleges that the senior official revealed that Salmond was being investigated for alleged sexual harassment of public officials several days after the former SNP leader was officially informed that he was under investigation.
His account follows very similar statements released by the committee last week from Kevin Pringle, a former spokesman for Salmond, and Duncan Hamilton, an advocate who is also one of Salmond’s attorneys.
Both men said they participated in a conference call with Aberdein; They did it the same day he spoke to Kay. Pringle told MSPs that Aberdein “had no doubt that the name of a whistleblower was shared with him.”
Scottish conservatives argue that these claims underpin their calls for a vote of no confidence at Holyrood on Nicola Sturgeon, Salmond’s successor as prime minister and his former protégé. They claim that he did not tell the truth about what he knew about the internal investigation and when.
Sturgeon has contested Aberdein’s version. Presenting evidence under oath last week during an eight-hour marathon testing session, Sturgeon told MSPs that the government official in question had denied his claims.
Neither Aberdein nor the anonymous official testified before the committee for legal reasons, meaning their competing accounts have not been proven under oath.
The Conservatives’ move against Sturgeon is seen by other Holyrood parties as a partisan attack designed to bolster the Conservative campaign for the May elections, and will not garner any other support from the opposition.
But Labor and Liberal Democrats are preparing to back a no-confidence motion against John Swinney, Sturgeon’s MP, for failing to release all government legal documents during his battle against Salmond’s judicial review that questioned the legality of his internal investigation late 2018. The Scottish Greens are expected to oppose the motion.
Swinney has told MSPs that the government has no records of two critical meetings attended by Sturgeon and one of his senior advisers, as well as Leslie Evans, the permanent secretary, and the government’s two outside attorneys in November 2018.
MSPs believe that those lawyers, including Roddy Dunlop QC, one of Scotland’s leading defenders, warned him that the government was destined to lose the case. Swinney has claimed no records were taken at those meetings – the committee believes the attorneys will have taken notes and want them released.
Kay has made statements to the Holyrood committee investigating the Scottish government’s failed investigation into those historic complaints and to James Hamilton, the former Irish public prosecutor who is investigating Sturgeon for allegedly violating the ministerial code.
Kay, the third anonymous witness Salmond referred to when he testified late last month, told MSPs that he was the first person Aberdein spoke to after meeting with the senior government official, who cannot be identified for reasons. legal.
She said Aberdein was “shocked” when he told her that Officer Salmond was under investigation and that they also gave him the name of the complainant. The committee is expected to publish its statement later, after it is verified for data protection reasons.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The prime minister has made her position on this clear in her evidence to the committee last week and looks forward to the findings of the independent adviser’s report on the ministerial code. [Hamilton]. “
