Nicola Sturgeon has come under intense pressure to explain what action she took over allegations that a complainer against Alex Salmond was named to one of his former aides.
During fiery exchanges in the Scottish parliament, Sturgeon was challenged by opposition leaders about claims that the woman’s identity was revealed to Geoff Aberdein, Salmond’s former chief of staff, in a “gross breach of confidentiality”.
Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s interim leader, pressed Sturgeon on whether that was authorised and if so, by whom. “That action was certainly not about protecting the interests of the women involved,” Baillie said. “Did the first minister authorise the contact, and if not, who did?”
Salmond, who is due to finally give evidence about his claims under oath in Holyrood on Friday, alleges in a submission to MSPs that Aberdein was given the information in early March 2018 by one of Sturgeon’s aides.
The first minister accused Baillie of allying herself with Salmond, but deflected the Labour leader’s questions. Sturgeon said she would answer them when she gives evidence next Wednesday to the committee investigating her government’s botched handling of two internal complaints against Salmond.
“Accepting at face value the conspiracy theories and the account of the man that the women accuse of harassing them seems to me to be quite a strange way of supporting and standing up for those women,” Sturgeon said, to applause from SNP MSPs.
She was then pressed by Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, on whether she believed the allegations were true. She replied: “To the very best of my knowledge, I do not think that happened.”
Rennie asked her whether she had investigated the claims when they surfaced. “Because an absence of action on this, first minister, would be negligence,” he said. “There is corroborating evidence that this did happen, so is the first minister saying that they are lying?”
Sturgeon declined to say whether she had investigated the claims herself. She said the Holyrood investigation and a separate inquiry by James Hamilton, Ireland’s former director of public prosecution, into whether she had broken the ministerial code should be allowed to look at that. “It is not my belief that that happened,” Sturgeon reiterated.
The exchanges follow a week of claims and counter-claims between Salmond and Sturgeon after the former first minister accused her and other senior figures in the Scottish government and the SNP of “a deliberate, prolonged, malicious and concerted effort” to destroy his career and reputation.
Sturgeon retaliated on Wednesday by accusing Salmond of alleging a “wild conspiracy” and “alternative reality” to deflect questions about his past behaviour towards women.
Opposition leaders were furious after the Crown Office, Scotland’s prosecution service, issued a legal warning to Holyrood urging it to redact or remove key parts of one of Salmond’s submissions. That led to accusations that the Crown Office was protecting Sturgeon and the SNP, allegations the lord advocate, James Wolffe QC, rejected in an emergency statement at Holyrood on Wednesday.
Baillie said the feud between Salmond and Sturgeon was destroying public trust. “We have seen this week that there is something rotten at the core of the SNP, and it’s poisoning our democratic institutions,” she said. “This isn’t just about Alex Salmond; this isn’t even just about the internal problems in the SNP. This is about the treatment of women in the future.”
An Ipsos Mori opinion poll published on Thursday found that support for the SNP and Sturgeon had fallen. It suggested that was linked to the Salmond controversy; 21% of SNP voters said it had worsened their opinion of the party, while 73% said it made no difference.
The SNP’s projected vote also fell by six points, as too did support for independence, but the party still enjoys a hefty lead over the Tories of 52% to 23%, with Labour trailing in third on 15%. Voter satisfaction in Sturgeon’s leadership had fallen too, from a net positive rating of +48 last October to +32 this month.
Pressed by Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader in Holyrood, over the redactions to Salmond’s evidence, Sturgeon said her former mentor had yet to produce any evidence to justify his allegations. She hit back at party leaders criticising the Crown Office.
“What is not legitimate is to pursue a conspiracy theory, a scorched-earth policy, that threatens the reputation and the integrity of Scotland’s independent justice institutions just because they happen to dislike this government, and to sacrifice all of that on the altar of the ego of one man,” she said.
