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Former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond has accused the husband of his successor Nicola Sturgeon and her chief of staff of participation in a “deliberate, prolonged, malicious and concerted†effort to remove him from public life.
In a blistering submission to a Scottish parliament inquiry into Sturgeon’s government’s handling of complaints against him, Salmond said there had been a “complete breakdown†of the barriers between government, political party and prosecutors in the nation he led from 2007 to 2014.
The submission, published late on Monday ahead of Salmond’s expected appearance before the committee on Wednesday, was the most graphic demonstration yet of the breakdown in relations between the former and current leaders of the governing Scottish National party.
Some in the SNP fear that increasingly open divisions within the party could undermine its effort to win a majority in May elections to the Scottish parliament that it hopes will provide a platform for a renewed push for independence from the UK.
Salmond was last March acquitted at the High Court in Edinburgh of all of 13 sexual offence charges against him. Under legal challenge from the former first minister, the Scottish government in 2019 accepted that its investigation into harassment complaints against him was “was tainted by apparent biasâ€. Sturgeon has dismissed suggestions that there was a conspiracy against Salmond as a “heap of nonsenseâ€.
In his submission, Salmond said a government complaints procedure developed in 2017 had been tailored to allow a complaint against him. The former first minister accused Peter Murrell, SNP chief executive and Sturgeon’s husband, of trying to “persuade staff and ex-staff members to submit police complaints†against him.
“The evidence supports a deliberate, prolonged, malicious and concerted effort amongst a range of individuals within the Scottish government and the SNP to damage my reputation, even to the extent of having me imprisoned,†Salmond wrote.
Other SNP officials and also Liz Lloyd, Sturgeon’s chief of staff, were involved in the effort, Salmond said.
In a separate submission to the committee also published on Monday, Lloyd dismissed as false any suggestion that she had sought to extend the reach of the complaints procedure, was involved in the leak of news of the complaints against Salmond, or was part of “some form of ‘conspiracy’†against him.
“I reject the allegation in its entirety and note that it is not substantiated by any evidence and is founded on a number of claims that are false,†Lloyd said.
Murrell, the SNP chief executive, has previously denied under oath to the committee involvement in any plot against Salmond.
Speaking to the BBC on Monday ahead of the publication of Salmond’s submission, Sturgeon said the complaints procedure had not been developed to target her former mentor, but in the context of the global “Me Too†movement to encourage women to report sexual misconduct.
“The burden of proof lies with him to replace the insinuation and assertion that we have heard over several months now with evidence,†Sturgeon said. “I know what he is claiming about a conspiracy is not true.â€
In his submission, Salmond accused the Crown Office, Scotland’s public prosecution service, of refusing to release the “most obvious and compelling evidence†supporting his claims, a decision he said was “frankly disgracefulâ€.
The Crown Office said last month that evidence retained from the investigation and prosecution of Salmond was obtained “for that sole purpose†and that it had acted with “impartiality and fairness to apply the law†when deciding what to release to the parliamentary committee.
Salmond has also accused Sturgeon of breaking the ministerial code by misleading parliament about the meetings between them in April 2018, a charge Sturgeon has denied.
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