Alex Salmond committee appearance in doubt as he blasts inquiry's 'farcical' decision

The former First Minister branded the decision “farcical”. 

The ex-SNP chief was due in front of the inquiry on Tuesday, but has said he’ll now need to consult with advisers.

Much, if not all of the document, submitted to James Hamilton’s investigation into whether or not Nicola Sturgeon broke the ministerial code, is already in the public domain.

But, according to the Daily Record, the committee can't publish the submission because it needs to “comply with relevant court orders as well as its obligations under GDPR and ECHR."

Effectively that means Salmond can't discuss it when he gives evidence, and that the committee can't consider what it says when writing up their final report. 

The cross-party committee is investigating the Scottish Government’s flawed probe into allegations of misconduct made against Salmond by two civil servants.

He had the exercise set aside in January 2019, with a judicial review declaring it “unlawful” and “tainted by bias”. The Government’s botched handling ultimately cost the taxpayer half a million pounds.

At a later criminal case the ex-SNP leader was found not guilty on 12 charges of sexual assault charges.

Following the Scottish Government concession in the courts, Sturgeon referred herself to the independent advisers on the Ministerial Code, after it was claimed she had broken the guidelines by failing to swiftly declare the three meetings and two phone calls with Salmond about the harassment complaints.

Scottish Government rules say that when discussing official business “any significant content” should be reported back to private offices.

James Hamilton, a former director of public prosecutions in Ireland, was tasked with investigating the First Minister’s actions.

His investigation is also investigating whether or not Sturgeon misled MSPs.

Sturgeon told parliament that she became aware of the government’s investigation of the allegations against Salmond when he told her at a meeting in her Glasgow home on April 2, 2018.

However, it later emerged that she met Geoff Aberdein, Salmond’s former chief of staff, in her office on March 29, 2018.

In her evidence to the cross-party Holyrood inquiry, Sturgeon said she had forgotten that meeting. 

In his submission to Hamilton Salmond said this was "untenable".

He said that the meeting had been arranged after Aberdein was told of two allegations by Sturgeon's chief of staff - before Sturgeon claims to have learned about it.

Salmond also claimed Holyrood had been "repeatedly misled" about the nature of a meeting between the two at Sturgeon's home.

He said: "The First Minister’s claim that it was ever thought to be about anything other than the complaints made against me is wholly false.

"The repeated representation to the Parliament of the meeting on the 2nd April 2018 as being a ‘party’ meeting because it proceeded in ignorance of the complaints is false and manifestly untrue." 

He also claims Sturgeon had offered to intervene in the Government's complaints process, which the First Minister has repeatedly denied. 

He said: "The First Minister’s position on this is simply untrue. She did initially offer to intervene, in the presence of all those at the First Minister's house on the 2nd April 2018.

"Moreover, she did engage in following the process of the complaint and indeed reported the status of that process to me personally."

Salmond also says Sturgeon allowed the Scottish Government to contest a civil court case against him despite having had legal advice that it was likely to collapse.

His submission says that “at the very latest, by October 31, 2018, the government and the First Minister knew of legal advice . . . that on the balance of probability they would lose the judicial review and be found to have acted unlawfully.

“Despite this the legal action was continued until early January 2019 and was only conceded after both government external counsel threatened to resign from the case which they considered to be unstateable.”

A Holyrood spokesperson told the Record: “No, the Committee won’t be publishing that. Mr Salmond has been made aware of that.

"All material published by the Committee is done so in line with its statement on the handling of information.

"That makes it clear that the Committee must comply with relevant court orders as well as its obligations under GDPR and ECHR."

Salmond’s spokeswoman said he would now speak to advisers about the next steps. 

She said: “This is a quite extraordinary development. 

“It would be one thing to remove a sentence or so but to suppress the whole submission is simply farcical.  

“It means that it can’t even be considered for inclusion in the Committee’s report. 

“In one letter the Convener seems to have wiped out the entire strand of her own Committee’s Inquiry into the Ministerial Code and dispatched the submission into a black hole. 

“Alex will consult with his advisers tomorrow afternoon as to where this leaves his evidence and what to do now. 

“Obviously everything that Alex has submitted has conformed to all legal requirements and there is no possible justification whatsoever for this decision which makes a mockery of the Parliament’s commitment to openness and transparency.”

When Salmond’s submission was made public at the start of the year, a spokesman for Sturgeon said the First Minister “entirely rejected Salmond’s claims”.

He added: “We should always remember that the roots of this issue lie in complaints made by women about Alex Salmond’s behaviour whilst he was first minister, aspects of which he has conceded.

“It is not surprising therefore that he continues to try to divert focus from that by seeking to malign the reputation of the first minister and by spinning false conspiracy theories.

"The First Minister is concentrating on fighting the pandemic, stands by what she has said, and will address these matters in full when she appears at committee in the coming weeks.”

Sturgeon is expected to appear in front of the committee on February 16.