'Hard to believe' Sturgeon did not know of concerns about Salmond's alleged behaviour earlier - leaked report

The Alex Salmond inquiry has concluded it is "hard to believe" Nicola Sturgeon did not know earlier of concerns about her mentor's alleged behaviour towards women.

Further leaks from the inquiry's report, due to be published on Tuesday, concluded that "if she did have such knowledge, she has misled the committee."

Ms Sturgeon has claimed the first concerns she ever heard came when she was informed about a media inquiry in Nov 2017 involving allegations about his behaviour towards female Edinburgh Airport staff.

Ms Sturgeon was his deputy for a decade, including seven years as Deputy First Minister in his Government. He has previously said he was "no saint" but insisted that he had never "sexually harassed anyone."

Mr Salmond was cleared of all criminal charges of sexual misconduct, alleged to have taken place between 2008 and 2014, at his trial last year.

The latest leak follows the disclosure the committee voted by a five to four majority that Ms Sturgeon gave an "inaccurate" account of a meeting with Mr Salmond at her home, and therefore misled parliament.

Ms Sturgeon has described the news as a "very partisan leak" from the inquiry and said it was "not that surprising". She alleged some opposition members of the committee had made up their minds even before she gave evidence.

A separate inquiry by James Hamilton QC into whether she broke the ministerial code - usually a resignation matter - is due to report shortly.

If that finds she broke the code, Ms Sturgeon has indicated she will refuse to resign and instead argue the Scottish people should decide whether she continues in office in May's Holyrood election.

But Sir Keir Starmer on Thursday highlighted her foreword to the Scottish ministerial code, which concludes: "I will lead by example in following the letter and spirit of this Code, and I expect that Ministers and civil servants will do likewise."

Speaking on a visit to Glasgow, the Labour leader said it would be "incredibily serious" if the Holyrood inquiry report suggested she had misled parliament and potentially breached the code.

He said: "Obviously the focus is very much on the individual, Nicola Sturgeon, but actually it is bigger than that: it is about the integrity of the Scottish Parliament, the integirity of the office of First Minister, and standards in public life.

"The code is important, the code is explicit, and the expectation has to be if there is a breach of the code, and I say if, then there should be a resignation."

Citing Ms Sturgeon's foreword, he added: "So she has set high standards and now she needs to live up to those high standards."

Asked about the First Minister's dismissal of the inquiry's conclusion as "partisan", Sir Keir said: "“The right thing for her to do is to wait for the report to read the report as we all will. But to say now, several days beforehand, what she’s said about the outcome is to do exactly what she’s accusing other people of doing.”

The latest leak

According to the latest leak, a majority of the committee did not think it credible she only started hearing allegations about Mr Salmond in Nov 2017, when civil servants also started raising concerns.

The report said: "If she did have such knowledge, then she should have acted upon it. If she did have such knowledge, she has misled the committee."

In her eight-hour evidence session, Ms Sturgeon told the committee she had asked Mr Salmond about the Edinburgh Airport claims at the time but he denied it and no further action was taken as Sky did not run the story.

However, she said the episode left her with “a lingering concern that allegations about Mr Salmond could materialise at some stage”.

Mr Salmond told the committee: "It wouldn’t have been front page news in any newspaper if it had ever been published at the time, given what I know about it.

“That was, in all my years in public life, the first indication of anything of that nature, in November 2017, and it came from a report 10 years ago. The Sky News story was never broadcast of course, and there’s a good reason for it never being broadcast.”

Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon held a meeting at her home on April 2, 2018 to discuss the Scottish Government's investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against him.

She has repeatedly insisted she did not offer to intervene but this was contradicted by Mr Salmond and Duncan Hamilton, a former SNP MSP who was also present.

In written evidence to the committee, Mr Hamilton said: " said: “We discussed mediation. My clear recollection is that her words were ‘If it comes to it, I will intervene’.”

The four SNP MSPs on the committee voted to back Ms Sturgeon’s account but the five opposition members, including independent Andy Wightman, thought on the balance of probabilities Mr Salmond and Mr Hamilton were telling the truth.

Their report is also believed to criticise Ms Sturgeon for holding two phone calls and three meetings with Mr Salmond, while he was facing the investigation.

Ms Sturgeon has said she did not initially inform the civil service of her dealings with him as she did not want to prejudice the investigation.

The report is expected to say: “She should have made the Permanent Secretary aware of her state of knowledge of the complaints and the fact of the meetings at the earliest opportunity after 2nd April, at which point she should have confirmed that she would cease all further contact with Mr Salmond on that subject.”

Nicola Sturgeon responds

A spokesman for Ms Sturgeon said: “The First Minister told the truth to the committee, and stands by every word of her evidence.

“Day and daily the public have seen the open, frank approach the First Minister has taken to political leadership. The contrast with elements of the opposition, who appear intent on breaking every rule in the book in a blatantly transparent attempt to damage her before the coming election, could not be more stark.

“The latest leak from the committee, suggesting they find it ‘hard to believe’ that the First Minister did not previously know about inappropriate behaviour on the part of Alex Salmond is not supported by a single shred of evidence. Sadly, she is not the first woman let down by a man she once trusted to face that charge, and regrettably she is unlikely to be the last.

“On this, the committee appears to have resorted to baseless assertion, supposition and smear – that is not how serious parliamentary committees are supposed to work, and in behaving this way they are simply exposing their base political motives.

“And on the suggestion that the First Minister was not clear to Mr Salmond that she would not intervene on his behalf, the committee appear to have deliberately ignored and suppressed evidence submitted to them which corroborates the First Minister’s evidence on that issue. And that, in fact, she did not intervene on behalf of a then friend and colleague to help cover up sexual harassment allegations, appears irrelevant to them.

“It was clear from the actions of the Tories several weeks ago, when they announced plans for a motion of confidence before they had even heard a word of evidence from First Minister, that for them this committee was never a serious exercise in learning lessons on behalf of women who bring forward complaints of sexual harassment – it was only ever about politics.

“The independent inquiry into the First Minister and the ministerial code is being conducted by James Hamilton, and we expect to receive and publish his report soon.”