Nicola Sturgeon ‘forgot’ about meeting with Alex Salmond aide

Image caption Ms Sturgeon said she has not spoken to her former mentor since August 2018

Nicola Sturgeon has said she “forgot” about a meeting in which she believes she was told about harassment complaints against Alex Salmond.

The first minister’s written evidence to the inquiry into her government’s botched handling of complaints against her predecessor has been published.

Ms Sturgeon insisted that she “tried to do the right thing” and “did not seek to influence” the investigation.

Opposition MSPs said she had confirmed that she had “misled parliament”.

The first minister had previously told MSPs that she first learned of the complaints against Mr Salmond on 2 April 2018, in a meeting at her home in Glasgow.

But in her written evidence, she said she had “forgotten” about a meeting with Geoff Aberdein, a former aide to Mr Salmond, on 29 March.

Ms Sturgeon said Mr Aberdein had been been in parliament to see a former colleague, and had come to see the first minister while he was there.

She said: “I had forgotten that this encounter had taken place until I was reminded of it in, I think, late January/early February 2019.

“For context, I think the meeting took place not long after the weekly session of FMQs and in the midst of a busy day in which I would have been dealing with a multitude of other matters.

“However, from what I recall, the discussion covered the fact that Alex Salmond wanted to see me urgently about a serious matter, and I think it did cover the suggestion that the matter might relate to allegations of a sexual nature.”

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Media captionNicola Sturgeon told Holyrood last week that the Alex Salmond inquiry ‘can call me any time it likes’

Ms Sturgeon insisted that while she “suspected” what her predecessor wanted to talk about, “it was Alex Salmond who told me on 2 April that he was being investigated and what the detail of the complaints was”.

She said she agreed to meet her predecessor as she had the impression that “Mr Salmond was in a state of considerable distress” and might be poised to resign his SNP membership”.

The Scottish Conservatives said the evidence provided was “a pile of nonsense” and said Ms Sturgeon’s “excuses are incredible and simply beyond belief”.

MSP Murdo Fraser, a member of the committee, said: “We are expected to accept that Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister renowned for her grasp of detail, has the memory of a sieve when she’s told that her mentor of 30 years is facing allegations of sexual misconduct.

“A meeting that would be seared in most people’s memory was immediately forgotten all about.”

‘Do the right thing’

The committee of MSPs was set up to investigate the government’s handling of two harassment claims against the former first minister, after he successfully challenged the complaints process in court.

In her written submission – which is dated 4 August but has only now been published – Ms Sturgeon insisted that “in what was a very difficult situation – personally, politically and professionally – I tried to do the right thing”.

The first minister spoke with Mr Salmond about the complaints on five occasions through the spring and summer of 2018, but said she had not spoken to her former mentor since.

She insisted that she “did not seek to prevent or influence the proper consideration of the complaints”.

And she said she had “acted in a way that I judged would best protect the independence and confidentiality of the investigation”.

Image copyright PA Media Image caption Geoff Aberdein testified at Mr Salmond’s trial that he had met Ms Sturgeon in March 2018

Ms Sturgeon also said she wanted to “reject in the strongest possible terms” any suggestions that she had conspired either with or against Mr Salmond, saying the government had a duty to look in to any complaints, regardless of who was involved.

Ms Sturgeon said that while “Mr Salmond could be challenging to work for” and had been involved in “tense situations”, she had previously had “no general concerns” about the culture of the government he ran and “certainly not about sexual harassment”.

But she said she had spoken to her predecessor about a media inquiry about “allegations of sexual misconduct” in November 2017, and that while this ultimately came to nothing it “left me with a lingering concern that allegations about Mr Salmond could materialise at some stage”.

‘Completely frustrated’

The convener of the inquiry committee, SNP MSP Linda Fabiani, has previously complained that it was being “completely frustrated” by the lack of evidence and what she described as “obstruction” from the government, the SNP and Mr Salmond.

Opposition members have accused Ms Sturgeon of going back on a pledge to provide “whatever material” the committee asked for, with a Conservative MSP being ejected from the Holyrood chamber for saying the first minister had “lied to parliament”.

In angry exchanges in the parliamentary chamber last week, Ms Sturgeon said it was “outrageous” she was being accused of not answering questions, saying the inquiry “can call me any time it likes”.

Labour MSP Jackie Baillie, a member of the committee, said the written submission from the first minister “raises many questions and could be described as having as many holes as a Swiss cheese”.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The committee has also asked questions of Ms Sturgeon’s husband, SNP chief Peter Murrell

The committee also received a fresh submission from SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell, who is also Ms Sturgeon’s husband.

Mr Murrell has been under fire from some in the SNP over text messages he sent in January 2019 – one suggesting that “folk should be asking the police questions” and that it was a “good time to be pressurising them”, and one saying that “the more fronts he [Mr Salmond] is having to firefight on the better”.

Mr Murrell said that he “did not express myself well”, but insisted that “the messages have been presented in a way that suggests a meaning that they do not in reality have”.

He said the texts had been “sent the day after Mr Salmond had been charged with a number of serious offences”, and reflected “the shock, hurt and upset” felt by himself and others in the SNP.

The SNP chief said the first text was intended to “advise that questions be addressed to the police and not the SNP”, while the second was “that any and all complaints should be appropriately investigated”.