Scotland’s opposition parties rounded on Nicola Sturgeon today for withholding critical pieces of evidence from the inquiry that could force her resignation.
Holyrood’s Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem leaders lined up to excoriate the First Minister for failing to provide the full legal advice given to the Scottish Government during its botched probe of sexual assault claims against Alex Salmond.
Some of the documents were released ahead of her marathon eight-hour testimony yesterday only after furious MSPs threatened a vote of no confidence in her deputy.
But MSPs lamented that bits were still missing – and believe they could be the smoking gun that prove beyond doubt she broke the ministerial code.
Breaching the ministerial code is typically considered a resignation offence, however Ms Sturgeon shut down speculation of her future at a fiery First Minister’s Questions.
‘Let’s wait and see what the outcome of the inquiries are, they will be published, and then we can debate in this chamber,’ she said.
Scotland’s opposition parties rounded on Nicola Sturgeon today for withholding critical pieces of evidence from the inquiry that could force her resignation
Tory Ruth Davidson said: ‘Despite this Parliament voting for the legal advice to be released four months ago, it was only partially revealed this week
Scottish Labour’s newly elected leader Anas Sarwar branded the First Minister’s withholding of legal advice ‘wholly unacceptable and disgraceful’.
Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie railed against the ‘belligerent and secretive 14-year Government more interested in defending itself than aiding the process of democracy’.
Tory Ruth Davidson said: ‘Despite this Parliament voting for the legal advice to be released four months ago, it was only partially revealed this week.’
To the groans of unconvinced MSPs, Ms Sturgeon said: ‘The Government rightly now has published that legal advice and people can now look at it and draw their own conclusions.’
Scottish Labour’s newly elected leader Anas Sarwar branded the First Minister’s withholding of legal advice ‘wholly unacceptable and disgraceful’
She added that she believes most of the country want her focus to be on the Covid crisis and not the inquiry.
But Mr Sarwar said: ‘First Minister, that answer would have more credibility if all of the legal advice was published before you gave evidence, and not after you gave evidence.’
Yesterday Ms Sturgeon appeared before a committee investigating the Scottish Government’s handling of complaints made against Mr Salmond in 2018.
Mr Salmond subsequently won a judicial review, which ruled the probe into him had been unlawful and tainted with bias, and the Government was forced to pay £500,000 in damages.
On the eve of Ms Sturgeon’s appearance before the inquiry, the Government released part of the legal advice it had received during its investigation into the former first minister.
Breaching the ministerial code is typically considered a resignation offence, however Ms Sturgeon shut down speculation of her future at a fiery First Minister’s Questions
They did so after opposition parties had vowed to trigger a vote of no confidence in her deputy, John Swinney, if the documents were not released.
Legal advice showed that the Scottish Government had been warned their case would most likely fail than succeed.
Critics argue that pressing on with the investigation against Mr Salmond in spite of this would be a breach of the ministerial code and pave the way for Ms Sturgeon’s resignation.
Today Ms Davidson said: ‘What we’ve already seen is if the Government ignored legal advice, they did. The argument is if they did so for three weeks or three months.
‘There’s no argument that the First Minister was at fault for losing half a million pounds of taxpayers money, only how much she is to blame for.
‘And there’s no argument if Nicola Sturgeon broke the ministerial code, the argument is only about how badly she broke it.’
Ms Sturgeon is awaiting the committee’s report as well as a separate inquiry into whether she broke the ministerial code.
She accused the Tories, who have already lodged a vote of no confidence in her leadership, of prejudging the outcomes of both inquiries.
She shot back: ‘It’s not about due process, it’s about political desperation on behalf of the Conservatives.’
And she took a further swipe at Ms Davidson, who is not standing in May’s Scottish elections but taking up a peerage in the House of Lords.
Ms Sturgeon said: ‘I think the country is becoming heartily sick of the soon-to-be Baroness Davidson lecturing anyone on democracy.’