Nicola Sturgeon rejects claims she misled Scottish parliament

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon on Wednesday rejected accusations from her predecessor Alex Salmond that she misled the Edinburgh parliament, saying she acted “appropriately and properly” in response to harassment complaints made against her former mentor.

In an opening statement to a parliamentary committee investigating her government’s handling of the complaints, Sturgeon dismissed claims by Salmond, which are supported by other members of her Scottish National party, that she did not tell the truth about meetings with him in 2018 at which they were discussed.

She took aim at her former closest political ally, saying she had been shocked when he told her details of the allegations against him from civil servants at a meeting at her home on April 2, 2018 and heard his version of an incident involved.

“What he described constituted in my view deeply inappropriate behaviour on his part,” she said.

“It may very well be that I didn’t get everything right . . . but in one of the most invidious political and personal situations I have ever faced, I believe I acted appropriately and properly and that overall I made the best judgments I could,” Sturgeon said.

Sturgeon’s appearance in front of the committee marks a potentially pivotal moment for her, and her dream of leading Scotland to independence from the UK.

In 2019, the Scottish government was forced in court to accept its investigation into the complaints against Salmond had been “tainted by apparent bias”. At a criminal trial last year, Salmond was acquitted of all of the 13 sexual offences charges against him.

The crisis threatens to overshadow upcoming Scottish parliament elections in May with Sturgeon facing calls to resign as first minister over her handling of the affair.

On Tuesday evidence was published by the committee that supported claims by Salmond that she misled the Scottish parliament over when she first learned about the government investigation into the former first minster.

She disputed Salmond’s claim that a meeting at her home on April 2 had been arranged specifically to discuss the complaints against him — a government issue — insisting that she thought he might be about to resign from the SNP, which would be a party matter and thus did not require civil servant involvement.

Salmond on Friday said evidence from his former chief of staff, Geoff Aberdein, which has not been published, supported his claim and in a letter published by the parliament late on Tuesday, former SNP MSP and advocate Duncan Hamilton, who was also present at the meeting, wrote: “When we arrived, everyone in the room knew exactly why we were there.”
 
“My recollection is different,” Sturgeon said of Aberdein’s explanation of an earlier meeting he had with her on March 29. This is critical to the affair because Salmond claims it was then that the April 2 meeting was arranged to specifically discuss the government investigation into the complaints against him — something Sturgeon denies.

Sturgeon also said she had been right to refuse Salmond’s request to intervene in the complaints process against him and dismisses as “absurd” his claim that he had been the subject of malicious plotting by her close associates.

“As first minister I refused to follow the age old pattern of allowing a powerful man to use his status and connections to get what he wants,” she said.