From behind a pay wall - Alex Salmond’s appearance before a Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish government’s unlawful handling of sexual harassment complaints against him has been cancelled.

A row over the legality of evidence submitted by the former Scottish first minister,
which alleged that Nicola Sturgeon, his successor, had broken the ministerial code on multiple occasions, has left the cross-party investigation at a crisis point in its final stages.

Salmond was due to give evidence tomorrow but that has now been shelved after his lawyers
accused the Scottish parliamentary committee of an “offensive” snubbing of his submission.

The inquiry was set up after Salmond won a judicial review against the Scottish government over its handling of sexual harassment complaints from two civil servants. The Court of
Session ruled the investigation was unfair and tainted by apparent bias and awarded him £512,250 in legal costs.

Salmond was subsequently acquitted of separate criminal charges following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

His allies have suggested he was the victim of a
politically motivated conspiracy, which has been dismissed as “nonsense” by Sturgeon.

This was repeated today by Peter Murrell, the SNP’s chief executive, who is married to Sturgeon, in his second appearance before the committee. He claimed there was “no conspiracy”
against Salmond and accused the committee of putting the privacy of women who made allegations at risk.

He was forced to deny giving false statements to the committee.

During a hearing in December, Murrell said he was not at home for meetings between Salmond and
Sturgeon, and that he was “not really aware that he [Salmond] was coming to the house on the first occasion”.

He then said he was “aware that Alex was coming to the house” and that he had “arrived home not long before the meeting ended”.

Asked by Murdo Fraser, the Scottish
Conservative MSP, after a testy exchange whether he had provided a false statement, Murrell said: “I absolutely refute what is being suggested.”

He was also pressed by Jackie Baillie, the interim leader of Scottish Labour, about text messages sent at the beginning of
criminal proceedings against Salmond. At his first session, Murrell was asked about texts he sent the day after Salmond first appeared in court saying it was a good time to be “pressurising” the police. Today, he was asked about reports that there were more messages about
his interaction with people being interviewed by officers investigating the claims.

“I think we need to be very careful about the privacy of the complainers here. They all came forward on the basis that their rights would be protected, their privacy would be protected and
that the judicial system would stand by them and make sure they were able to maintain anonymity,” he said.

“I think committee members here are drifting into areas where there is an agenda at play, which I think there is a very clear agenda at play in some parts of
social media to name the women and I don’t think that the committee or I should be involved in assisting that.”

The row over Salmond’s appearance centres on evidence he submitted to a separate investigation into Sturgeon’s conduct by James Hamilton, QC, which accused her of
giving “wholly false” evidence to parliament and the inquiry. It is not being published by the Holyrood committee because of legal constraints.

Its contents, first revealed last month by The Times, have been branded “false conspiracy theories” by Sturgeon’s spokesman.
In a letter to the Holyrood committee, David McKie, of Levy & McRae, the legal firm representing Salmond, said the ex-Scottish National Party leader could not appear before the inquiry without firm legal guidance about what he is able to say.

He said: “Asking a witness to
accept the constraints of speaking only to evidence selected by you on the undisclosed advice and direction of unidentified others is not acceptable in any forum and is, in our client’s view, particularly offensive when the remit he seeks to address has been set for you by
parliament and addresses the unlawful actions of an elected government and the needless squandering of hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money.”

It now appears likely that Salmond will hold a press conference to make public his version of events rather than appear at
Holyrood committee.

A Holyrood spokeswoman said that Salmond would be able to “speak freely in committee about all of his contact with Nicola Sturgeon and his views on her actions” during a four-hour session. He would also be able to make further written submissions following
any appearance.

“All of this written and oral evidence could then be reflected in the committee’s report,” the spokeswoman added.
-end-

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