ALEX Salmond has written to the Scottish Affairs Committee to correct “inaccurate, misleading and factually false statements” made by Douglas Ross.
The former first minister and Scottish Tory leader clashed over CalMac ferries earlier this week.
Ross tried to blame Salmond for the fiasco, who insisted he had no role in awarding the contracts to the Ferguson Marine yard.
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In a letter to committee chair and SNP MP Pete Wishart, Salmond pointed out that he left office on November 18 2014, while the decision to award the contract was made on August 21 2015.
Ross also claimed that Salmond had a role in the nationalisation of the Port Glasgow shipyard several years after he had left office.
In a furious response after the exchange, Salmond wrote to Wishart: “The last commercial shipyard on the lower Clyde entered administration during August 2014.
“I was very pleased to be able to support the initiative to save the yard from closure.
“When I left office as first minister, there was every reasonable expectation that the skills of the workforce, the business experience of Mr [Jim] McColl and a substantial potential order book for ferries appropriate for the yard, would take this private business to success.
“After well documented issues with the tender, the Scottish Government made the decision to nationalise the shipyard in August 2019, nearly five years after I had left the office of first minister.”
He added: “Instead of focusing on intergovernmental relations between both Scottish and UK Governments, Mr Ross also appeared keen to falsely represent the track record of the Government I led between 2007 and 2014.”
Salmond also hit out at claims Ross had made about the former first minister's record on education.
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“Whilst I was first minister of Scotland, between 2007 and 2012, pupils in Scotland scored well above the OECD average in PISA tests, and consistently came top of the four UK nations in maths and reading,” he said.
“In the last PISA figures published whilst I was in office as first minister, for maths, Scotland scored 498 points, four higher than England. For reading, Scotland scored well above the OECD average, at 513 points.
“During this period, the ‘attainment gap’ between the most advantaged and most disadvantaged pupils had narrowed for the first time.”
Salmond added it was for “others to defend the record” of the Scottish Government after he left office.
Concluding, Salmond told Wishart he would be “grateful if you could place this letter on the record in the event Mr Ross still feels unable himself to correct the glaringly inaccurate, misleading and factually false statements he so foolishly made”.
The Scottish Conservatives have been contacted for comment.
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