Alex Salmond inquiry LIVE: Nicola Sturgeon finishes evidence but MSP ‘not satisfied’ with answer over Salmond meeting

SWINNEY: NO RECORDS EXIST OF STURGEON MEETING WITH LAWYERS OVER SALMOND

The Deputy First Minister has told the Holyrood inquiry into the Government's unlawful investigation of Mr Salmond that he is unable to provide details that the committee had asked for.

Mr Swinney, who is after refusing parliament's demands to release legal advice for almost four months, had said the Government did not record minutes of meetings with its external counsel about the former first minister's ultimately successful legal challenge.

The current First Minister and Ms Evans, Scotland's most senior civil servant, held meetings with external legal advisers about the judicial review on November 2 and November 13 2018, according to evidence provided to the committee.

MSPs have asked the Government to release the official records of the meetings, but Mr Swinney has insisted the Government "have not identified any record of minutes having been prepared or previously held".

Tories confirm they WILL go ahead with John Swinney vote of no confidence

The Deputy First Minister has been accused of “dripping out” tranches of documents which show the Scottish Government was warned Mr Salmond was likely to succeed in his judicial review over the way a harassment probe into him was handled weeks before they finally conceded.

The Scottish Conservatives said Mr Swinney has continued to ignore the will of two Holyrood votes as he has still not released all the information requested by the committee set up to examine the government’s botched investigation.

Leader Douglas Ross also insisted the SNP minister had “blatantly withheld” some evidence until after Nicola Sturgeon appeared on Wednesday, with two of three publications coming in the days following her grilling by MSPs.

NICOLA Sturgeon and Ruth Davidson clash in heated FMQs exchange

'POLISHED'

SCOTTISH Labour’s Jackie Baillie said Nicola Sturgeon put in a “very good performance” at the Alex Salmond inquiry - but said key details were lacking.

The party’s deputy leader said the First Minister gave a “polished” account as she was grilled over the Scottish Government’s botched probe into harassment allegations against Mr Salmond.

Ms Baillie, who questioned Ms Sturgeon yesterday, said committee members were “obstructed” and left unable to do their jobs.

The Labour MSP criticised the SNP Government after legal advice was only released following threats of a no confidence vote in Deputy First Minister John Swinney.

Ms Baillie said: "As I expected I thought Nicola Sturgeon put in a very good performance. It was very polished, as we've come to expect of her.

"But in the torrent of words that were exchanged over the eight hours I'm not sure that in some areas where we needed quite specific detailed answers that we actually got them."

'FURTHER ACTION'

ONE of Nicola Sturgeon’s ministers suggested people could still lose their jobs over “serious errors” in the Scottish Government’s investigation into Alex Salmond.

Mike Russell said there would “have to be consequences” for the botched handling of harassment complaints about the former First Minister.

The senior Nats figure told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland that Ms Sturgeon was waiting for the committee investigating the failures - which led to two women complainers being failed and over £500,000 of taxpayers’ cash being lost - to bring forward recommendations.

But he said the First Minister had been “very clear there would be further action” required.

FACING OFF

NICOLA Sturgeon said the Scottish people have been "voting no confidence in the Conservatives since the 1950s" during a fiery clash with Ruth Davidson in Holyrood.

The SNP chief faced off against the Scottish Tories parliamentary leader about the Alex Salmond inquiry at FMQs this afternoon.

Ms Davidson accused Ms Sturgeon of breaking the ministerial code, and questioned why the FM hadn't resigned - alluding to the Tories' proposed vote of no confidence.

She said: "We believe the sanction is to go. Why doesn't she?"

Her comments provoked outrage from the SNP benches and brought a wry smile from the First Minister, who blasted back that Ms Davidson was showing "her true colours" and mocked the Conservatives' record in Scottish elections.

Ms Sturgeon said: "I suspect their private polling is even more desperate than the public polling right now, because, remember, the people of Scotland have been voting no confidence in the Conservatives since the 1950s."

PIC CHECK CLAIM

ALEX Salmond trawled  through photos on social media to identify one of his accusers, Nicola Sturgeon has claimed. 

The First Minister said her predecessor worked out who the complainer was by checking the Scottish Government’s Flickr account to see who’d been with him on “particular days”.

Her comments at a Holyrood inquiry came as she denied claims by those in Mr Salmond’s circle that someone in her government leaked the woman’s identity to his former chief of staff Geoff Aberdein in early March 2018.

Ms Sturgeon said her ex-mentor already knew one complainer’s identity because he “remembered” an alleged incident with her for which he’d previously apologised.

And the Nats leader said he conducted his “own investigations” to identify the other person making harassment allegations against him.

She claimed Mr Salmond was “open” with her about one complainant’s identity during a controversial summit the pair held at her home in Glasgow on April 2 2018.

'INNER CONFLICT'

NICOLA Sturgeon vividly showed how devastated she was by her fallout with Alex Salmond when she nearly broke down during evidence, a body language expert has revealed.

Derek Heron said it was clear the First Minister was “deeply hurt” as she spoke about feeling .

Derek said her pauses, lack of eye contact and the way she gripped her hands together as she spoke about the ex-FM showed the “huge inner conflict” she felt over their friendship breakdown.

TORY BLAST

DOUGLAS Ross has accused Nicola Sturgeon of avoiding "almost every difficult question" as she gave testimony to the Alex Salmond inquiry.

The First Minister faced questions from the committee all day today and finished up after 5pm, but MSPs were still "not satisfied" with the answers she had given with regards to a meeting with her predecessor.

The First Minister was pressed on why she had not immediately reported her meeting with Mr Salmond, when he told her about the complaint, to civil servants.

The SNP leader offered a final defence of her actions as she addressed the committee following hours of questions.

Convenor Linda Fabiani brought the session to a close despite the ongoing concerns over Ms Sturgeon's meeting with her predecessor.

And now Scottish Tories leader Ross has hit out at what he claims was an attempt to evade the line of questioning.

He said: “The abiding memory of this evidence session will be Nicola Sturgeon proclaiming 'I can’t recall' on repeat. She dodged and evaded almost every difficult question.

“The First Minister vividly remembers the details she believes exonerate her, then forgets entirely anything that damages her."

SESSION OVER

NICOLA Sturgeon finished giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament's Alex Salmond inquiry - but MSPs were still not "satisfied" over a meeting with her old boss.

The SNP leader offered a final defence of her actions as she addressed the committee following hours of questions.

Convenor Linda Fabiani brought the session to a close despite the ongoing concerns over Ms Sturgeon's meeting with her predecessor.

'AGONISED OVER EVERY DECISION'

NICOLA Sturgeon was pressed on why she had not immediately reported her meeting with Alex Salmond, when he told her about the complaint, to civil servants.

She said she feared if she had done this she would have "compromised the independence, and the privacy, the confidentiality, of the process".

The First Minister said: "I have agonised over every decision and every step I took in this process. I have searched my soul on this on a personal level, a political level, a government level.

"On that particular decision I did not intervene, I did not try influence this process. If I had picked up the phone or told the civil service I knew, my worry was that that act in itself might have been influencing the process because suddenly you have got civil servants thinking, even just subliminally, thinking 'what does she think we should be doing about this?'."

Referring to the coronavirus pandemic, she added: "Before this year I would have said this was the most difficult set of decisions I have ever had to take.

"I think after this year that is probably not the case. But the personal, political, governmental nature of all of this made this a really invidious situation."

Ms Sturgeon added: "I don't say that to ask for a free pass, you expect first ministers to deal with difficult situations properly. But the combination of all of this was horrendously difficult, and I tried to reach the best judgments."

Labour's Jackie Ballie said: "You met Alex Salmond on April 2, messages exchanged on June 1 and 3. Giving what you are saying about his behaviour, why did you keep meeting him?"

Ms Sturgeon replied: "I still felt, despite everything, a loyalty to him and that's why I made these decisions.

"The thing I was absolutely adamant about is I would not try to influence this process in the way he wanted me to because I felt that was inappropriate."

'NOT SATISFIED'

LABOUR'S Jackie Baillie has told an inquiry she is "not satisfied" with Nicola Sturgeon's answers seeking to explain meetings in March 2018.

She had been grilling the First Minister on sworn testimony by Alex Salmond's ex-chief-of-staff Geoff Aberdein that he learned of harassment complaints from a senior government official prior to a March 29 meeting with the First Minister.

Convener Linda Fabiani intervened to say Ms Sturgeon had already answered questions on this subject.

Ms Baillie responded: "The difficulty is I'm not entirely satisfied with the responses that we've received."

Interjecting, the First Minister said: "Geoff said things…on oath, I didn't hear that evidence."

Earlier, Tory Murdo Fraser said he was "struggling to believe" Ms Sturgeon's "story" that she forgot about the March 29 meeting given it discussed the allegations.

She hit back: "It's not a story, it's an account of what happened."

DEEPLY PERSONAL

NICOLA Sturgeon was visibly upset as she told the committee she’s had to “rethink certain thoughts” about Alex Salmond after things she’s learned about him over the past two years.

The First Minister’s voice cracked as she described how her predecessor has let her and others “down”.

Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said Ms Sturgeon spent many years as Mr Salmond’s close political friend and deputy, during which time she told the Scottish people they should trust him - including in the run up to the 2014 independence referendum.

Mr Fraser asked when she realised Mr Salmond was a “liar and a fantasist”.

QUIT FEARS

NICOLA Sturgeon said she believed Alex Salmond might quit the SNP - and feared he could plan an “Alex Salmond press conference” in a bid to “take control of the narrative”.

The First Minister said she was told by Mr Salmond’s former aide Geoff Aberdein at a meeting on March 29 2018 that her predecessor was considering quitting the party.

But she said that “knowing Alec as I did”, he did not “always do the expected thing”.

She told the committee that Mr Salmond indicated he did not want the complaints against him to become public when they met at her home four days later on April 2.

FINAL MEETING

NICOLA Sturgeon said she met Alex Salmond for a “third and final” time in 2018 because she was “concerned” about her former friend.

The First Minister met her predecessor on three occasions that year - on April 2, June 7 and July 13.

She said the final meeting was “still very much in a personal/party space”, but told the committee she is “reflective” on it and questions “why did I meet him again here”.

She said: “This is maybe the most ironic bit of all, probably at that stage I was still a bit concerned about him.

“I’m sitting here facing all of this and being accused of being part of a grand conspiracy against him. Actually some of what probably has led me into trouble is that I was concerned about him.

“That’s why I met him in July.”

'FRUSTRATED'

A MEMBER of Holyrood's Salmond inquiry has lashed out at how "frustrated" she has been by the Scottish Government's "partial and late" provision of documents.

Branding it "disrespectful" to the committee of MSPs, Labour deputy Jackie 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 highlighted parliament has held two votes to obtain legal advice from the government's judicial review case against Mr Salmond, the loss of which Ms Sturgeon earlier admitted was "catastrophic".

The Scottish Labour MSP added: "I find that really disrespectful to the committee."

Ms Baillie said despite the release of some key legal notes last night, "we simply do not have" all of the advice.

She said: "We have waited till the 11th hour for the legal advice. We get partial legal advice.

"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?"

Ms Sturgeon said she understood and added: "Sitting here right now I am glad you have got the legal advice so that I can talk about it openly today.

"But I have a concern about getting into a situation where government legal advice is routinely asked for and published, because I think that will undermine the basis on which governments properly inform their decisions."

'BIG IMPLICATIONS'

NICOLA Sturgeon said her refusal to intervene in the government’s investigation into Alex Salmond has had “big implications” for her relationship with him.

The First Minister said it would have been “deeply inappropriate” for her to have complied with his request to bring about a process of arbitration, which may have prevented him taking the government to a judicial review.

She said: “If I had used my role, my influence, my power, to get him an outcome he wanted, not as a former First Minister but as the person who was subject to these complaints, I think that would have been an egregious breach of my power.

“I think it would have been wrong and deeply inappropriate. In all of this, there has been a lot of personal angst for me and others - me least of all - in all of this."

'LITANY OF FAILURES'

NICOLA Sturgeon has been grilled on why no one in her government has resigned over the botched and unlawful handling of its harassment probe of Alex Salmond.

Scottish Labour deputy Jackie Baillie noted the First Minister herself had described the circumstances around the conceding of the civil case against Mr Salmond as "catastrophic".

She said there has been a "litany of failures" in the affair and asked: "Why has nobody resigned or taken responsibility for this?"

Ms Sturgeon acknowledged she has "profound concerns" that the events of the past two years will have damaged women's confidence in coming forward with similar complaints.

She said the government must bear responsibility for that and said "people got things wrong", but added: "This situation of complaints emerging against Alex was horrendous for everyone dealing with it."

And on what went wrong and the repercussions, the FM stated: "We are still in the process of investigation and inquiry into all of this."

'HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE'

NICOLA Sturgeon said it would have been “highly inappropriate” for her to intervene by acting on a request from Alex Salmond to bring about a process of “arbitration” in the government’s investigation.

The First Minister said it was not her decision to reject Mr Salmond’s suggestion the matter could be resolved privately as it was “part of the process of the handling of the investigation that I wasn’t involved in, and didn’t intervene in”.

She said the predecessor had messaged her suggesting “I should be intervening to bring about a process of arbitration”.

Ms Sturgeon told the committee: “I think it would have been highly inappropriate for me to intervene on Mr Salmond’s behalf to try to bring any particular outcome about.

“This was an investigation that I was not part of, I had no role in, I wasn’t even supposed to know about it. And I would have been intervening on behalf of a friend and a colleague and an associate.

“The complainers didn’t have the ability to come to me and ask me to intervene to get something they wanted to happen in the process. I would have been giving him privileged influence in a process that I wasn’t meant to have part.

“People have strong views about my conduct and that’s perfectly correct and I will defend that and I will take people’s judgement of that.

“But if I had done that, if I was sitting here right now having done that, I think the criticism that would be raining down on my head would be absolutely and utterly justified.”

'ABSURD'

NICOLA Sturgeon has rejected as "absurd" a key Alex Salmond claim that the Scottish Government continued in its doomed civil court battle against him in the hope criminal charges would "overtake" it.

The First Minister said that once the police investigation against Mr Salmond began in August 2018, the government looked at the possibility of "sisting" or pausing the civil proceedings.

She told the Holyrood inquiry it would have been "extraordinary" if it hadn't at least been considered, but insisted it was not a major factor in discussions with lawyers.

Shortly before police announced charges against the former First Minister in January 2019, the government's case in the judicial review brought by Mr Salmond collapsed, costing taxpayers over £600,000 in legal fees alone.

But Ms Sturgeon said the "evidence" Mr Salmond has claimed supports his theory dates back either to August 2018 - before the government realised the civil case was in trouble - and January 2019 after the case had already collapsed.

She added: "The idea that we were gaming the timing of the judicial review to allow a police investigation to overtake it is absurd and bizarre and just completely without foundation."

'CATASTROPHIC'

NICOLA Sturgeon has admitted the events which led up to the Scottish Government conceding its civil case against Alex Salmond were "dreadful" and "catastrophic".

Asked who is to blame for that, the First Minister said she is accountable as head of government but said she would not "throw blame" around at other officials.

Tory inquiry member Murdo Fraser quizzed her on an "astonishing note from senior and junior counsel" on December 19, 2018, around two weeks before the judicial review was conceded, which was revealed in yesterday's release of legal advice.

The note from lawyers came after Mr Salmond had successfully launched a 'Commission and Diligence' process to recover documents which were withheld by the government against its "duty of candour" in the case.

Mr Fraser said: "The counsel refers to the regrettable way in which the document disclosure was unfolded, the extreme professional embarrassment that they have faced in court.

"They say that the havers who are cited for the commission hearing will expect the torrid time in the witness box. They say the late nature the revelations are unexplained and inexplicable."

He added: "I mean, this is catastrophic, is it not?"

The First Minister replied: "That was catastrophic and that's what led to the ultimate concession."

But she said "up until around that point" despite reservations from senior counsel, her own legal officers, including the Lord Advocate, thought they had a "stateable" case.

However, Ms Sturgeon said: "That which you've described there was dreadful, catastrophic. That is at the heart of what went wrong in the just judicial review."

HITTING BACK

NICOLA Sturgeon has denied there was a fishing expedition to find new complainers against Alex Salmond after initial claims were referred to police.

Mr Salmond has claimed evidence exists showing government and SNP officials sought out women who might come forward after the initial harassment investigation was made public and police began a probe.

The First Minister conceded to the Holyrood inquiry that, in some instances, specific ex-staffers were approached - but stressed this was a "duty of care".

And it comes after messages were revealed from her husband, SNP chief exec Peter Murrell, which suggested putting "pressure" on cops regarding Mr Salmond.

'LINGERING SUSPICION'

NICOLA Sturgeon has insisted she was first informed of the two formal complaints about Alex Salmond by him on April 2 2018 - but told how she had a “lingering suspicion” there was something “in the undergrowth that might surface” before then.

The First Minister said a Sky News media query in November 2017 which related to Mr Salmond’s alleged behaviour at Edinburgh Airport had left her with a “feeling of unease”.

She said she was made aware that either Mr Salmond or his lawyer had been contacting people in the civil service following that query being raised.

Ms Sturgeon told the committee: “I can’t put this any more firmly than I’m about to put it to you and I’m sorry about that. That, and the way that was raised with me, just led to a sense of unease that that, him phoning, or these phone calls - whether they were from him or his lawyer - had stirred something, kind of poked a hornets’ nest.

“I didn’t have knowledge of specific complaints, but I, it wasn’t something I thought about every day, it wasn’t something I lay awake at night at that point worrying about. But I had a lingering suspicion that there just might be something in the ether, in the undergrowth that might surface.”

She also said that her recollection of her meeting with Mr Salmond’s former chief of staff Geoff Aberdein on March 29 2018 was “not as vivid as I wish it was”.

But she said that while she had “a general awareness” or a “suspicion” of a complaint about her predecessor, she did not have “knowledge” of it until April 2 when Mr Salmond showed her a letter he’d received from Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans informing him of the complaints against him.

She said: “Ahead of April 2, I had an awareness there was a complaint, no doubt I had suspicions of what the nature of what that might be, but that’s what it was: a general awareness, a suspicion that no doubt I had all sorts of theories for in my head.

“But it was reading the Permanent Secretary’s letter that he showed me on April 2 that gave me the knowledge and the detail behind that knowledge of all the things I have spoken about.”

NEW TWIST

ALEX Salmond has lodged a formal complaint over claims a complainant's name was disclosed by a government official to his chief of staff.

The ex-FM has lodged an official complaint with Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans over the alleged disclosure in the middle of Nicola Sturgeon's evidence to an inquiry into the botched handling of harassment claims.

A spokesperson for the ex-FM 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.”

FIRST WORDS

This is to the Scottish Parliament as she began giving evidence at the Salmond inquiry.

The First Minister is attending the Holyrood probe into the Scottish Government's botched harassment investigation.