At a landmark hearing, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon gives evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints.
Her appearance follows that of her predecessor, Alex Salmond, last week, in which the former First Minister accused Ms Sturgeon of breaking the Ministerial Code by misleading MSPs about when she first learned of accusations against him.
Keep up-to-date on the latest developments from today’s Committee hearing by following the live blog below, featuring breaking news, images and political analysis from The Scotsman’s politics specialists.
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="800" width="1200" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
Last updated: Wednesday, 03 March, 2021, 14:15
- FM faces questions from MSPs over handling of Salmond Inquiry
- Sturgeon told to resign as evidence handed to committee
- Lord Advocate defends Crown Office actions to MSPs
- Swinney publishes SG legal advice after threat of no-confidence motion
- Sturgeon and Salmond row ‘bringing country down’, says Gordon Brown
Lesley Riddoch on Sturgeon performance
Nicola Sturgeon rejected suggestions the Government did not take the advice of senior lawyers in conceding Alex Salmond’s judicial review petition.
Committee member Murdo Fraser MSP highlighted some advice which warned “the trumpeting would be far louder” if the case proceeded to a written judgment, saying the “least worst option would be to concede the petition”.
Ms Sturgeon said: “The charge that has been made against me is that I wilfully allowed a judicial review to proceed against the legal advice, therefore I broke the ministerial code.
“With respect, as you now know, I was acting in accordance with the views of the law officers, not against.
“We thought we had a stateable case, counsel was not arguing at that stage – that changed later – we thought we had credible arguments to make, and we were also taking account of that wider interest in getting a determination on the many grounds of challenge that Alex Salmond had made to both the procedure and its application.”
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser insisted the Scottish government’s legal advice, published by ministers on Tuesday night, had shown by December 6 “if not before” that the risk of losing the court case brought by Mr Salmond was “very high”.
He challenged Ms Sturgeon on this, saying: “You were risking public funds in continuing with the action.”
The First Minister told him: “I think every time a government defends a legal action it is risking public funds, because there is never a guarantee you are going to be successful.”
She added: “My understanding is that much of what went really wrong in the case, catastrophically wrong… was in that later stage of December, when it became clear, I believe not intentionally, that there was information and material that had not hitherto been disclosed.”
But she said: “Up until as late as December 11 it was the opinion of law officers we had a stateable case with credible arguments.”
Sturgeon dismisses claim of ‘malicious plan’ to convict Salmond
Nicola Sturgeon has said claims of a “plot” to undermine Alex Salmond and a “fishing exercise” to drum up complaints against him was “not based in any semblance of fact or semblance of evidence”.
The First Minister also told MSPs on the committee investigating the Scottish Government’s handling of sexual harassment complaints against her predecessor that she did not know the identities of all the complainers in the criminal trial, which saw Mr Salmond cleared of all charges.
Asked by SNP MSP Alasdair Allan about Mr Salmond’s claims that “various people were trying to manufacture allegations against him”, Ms Sturgeon refuted the suggestion that emails sent out to SNP staff were a “fishing exercise”.
Read the full story here:
The Committee suspends once again
MSPs will resume their questioning of Ms Sturgeon at 2pm.
A message from the Editor:
Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.
If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.
Dani Garavelli on Lord Advocate
The Scotsman analysis:
For an inquiry which has all too often found its important work consumed by handwringing over its own processes and constraints, the testimony of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon provided a raw, emotional edge.
In an investigation in which the question of who exactly is on trial is fiercely contested by opposing political tribes, it reminded the committee - and those watching at home - of its dreadful psychological toll.
A great deal of her evidence demonstrated a trained lawyer’s grasp of microdetail, dominating swathes of the evidence session with robust and dogged rebuttals of the allegation against her and her government.
Read the full analysis here:
FM wasn’t ‘briefed every single day’ on judicial review
Murdo Fraser asked what the First Minister’s role was in relation to the judicial review.
Ms Sturgeon said: “My formal role was, I was named as an interested party in the petition.
“I was involved in discussions about the prospects of success and the changing prospects as we went though.
“My involvement was greater at particular junctures. I wasn’t being briefed every single day.
“It was not an unusual degree of involvement or oversite – I mean obviously given who was taking the Scottish Government to court it was slightly unusual.”
Mr Fraser said it seemed the First Minister appeared to be quite well briefed throughout the process.
Nicola Sturgeon was later pressed on suggestions from Mr Salmond that she had told him she would “intervene” in the action against him.
After the meeting between the two politicians in April 2018, Mr Salmond’s lawyer Duncan Hamilton said, in a written submission to the committee, that his recollection was “her words were if it comes to it I will intervene”.
Ms Sturgeon said: “I believe I did make it clear I would not intervene. I also know, that I was perhaps trying to let a long-standing friend and colleague down gently and maybe I did it too gently and he left with an impression I did not intend to give him.
“I think I was clear, and certainly intended to be clear.”
The First Minister told the committee: “I was possibly couching ‘I’m not intervening’ in terms that were, given the relationship between us, maybe not as blunt as they should be. I had no intention of intervening, and crucially I did not intervene in the process, and that is the case.”
She continued: “During this discussion on April 2, to be blunt about it, my head was spinning, I was experiencing a maelstrom of emotions, I had been told something pretty shocking by Alex Salmond and there were a number of things in my head.”
But she insisted she had a “very strong instinctive view that I couldn’t and shouldn’t intervene”.
She stated: “I did not intend to intervene, and I did not intervene, and while I know it is more complex than this, I think in terms of his anger towards me I think that is the root of it with Mr Salmond.”
Sturgeon on Salmond evidence hearingThat he was acquitted by a jury of criminal conduct is beyond question, beyond question, but I know just from what he told me that his behaviour was not always appropriate. And yet across six hours of testimony, there was not a single word of regret reflection, or even simple acknowledgement of that.
BBC’s Nick Eardley on the Committee’s progress
Sturgeon concerned that Committee’s work would distract from complainants
Nicola Sturgeon said she was concerned about how the Committee’s work may draw the attention away from the complainants.
She said: “One of the genuine worries I have here is the extent to which this whole process has side-lined and silenced the voice of the complainers and that’s not what anybody on this committee has wanted or tried to do.
“It’s not for me to tell you how to do your work, and it’s certainly not, but if you want to know what the complainers thought (about the process of dealing with their allegations) perhaps trying to speak to them would be a better way than trying to get me to second-guess their views.”
Val McDermid on the Committee hearing
Alex Salmond lodges formal complaint as FM gives evidence
Alex Salmond has lodged a formal complaint to the Scottish Government around the alleged conduct of a senior official who has been accused of disclosing the name of a complainer to Geoff Aberdein.
The lodgement comes as Nicola Sturgeon denied that a senior official from within the Scottish Government did pass on the name of a complainer to Mr Salmond’s former chief of staff.
Read The Scotsman’s full story here:
Sturgeon ‘dismayed’ by claims of false accusations against Salmond
The First Minister also said she was dismayed by suggestions that complainants were concocting or making up allegations against Alex Salmond.
She said: “To this day, I don’t know the identity of every single complainer in the criminal trial.
“Some of those whose identities I do know, I don’t know them well.
“To the best of my knowledge, they don’t all know each other well.
“The idea this was some concoction or plot is just not based on any semblance of fact or any semblance of credible evidence.”
Nicola Sturgeon insisted she had seen “nothing that comes within a million miles” of backing up claims that Mr Salmond was the victim of a conspiracy within the SNP.
Speaking about messages sent by various people within the party, she said they showed “people supporting each other, people talking to each other”.
She added there was “a bit of gossip about what was going on”, saying: “This was a massive thing for the SNP, particularly for people who had worked closely with him.”
But she stressed that people in the SNP were co-operating with police, saying: “Some of what has been misrepresented as trying to find or concoct evidence is actually people co-operating with the police at their request.
“I have seen nothing that comes within a million miles of backing up that central assertion Alex was making, that there was some kind of co-ordinated attempt, for whatever motive, and the motive seems to be on shifting sands as well, I have seen nothing that comes within a million miles of demonstrating that.”
Page 1 of 5
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMipQFodHRwczovL3d3dy5zY290c21hbi5jb20vbmV3cy9wb2xpdGljcy9hbGV4LXNhbG1vbmQtaW5xdWlyeS1saXZlLW5pY29sYS1zdHVyZ2Vvbi1wcmVzc2VkLW9uLWhhcmFzc21lbnQtbGVha3MtdG8tcHJlc3MtYXMtYWxleC1zYWxtb25kLWxvZGdlcy1mb3JtYWwtY29tcGxhaW50LTMxNTI1NzHSAakBaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2NvdHNtYW4uY29tL25ld3MvcG9saXRpY3MvYWxleC1zYWxtb25kLWlucXVpcnktbGl2ZS1uaWNvbGEtc3R1cmdlb24tcHJlc3NlZC1vbi1oYXJhc3NtZW50LWxlYWtzLXRvLXByZXNzLWFzLWFsZXgtc2FsbW9uZC1sb2RnZXMtZm9ybWFsLWNvbXBsYWludC0zMTUyNTcxP2FtcA?oc=5
2021-03-03 12:39:03Z
52781408867481
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar