{"id":337432,"date":"2025-08-12T03:39:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T03:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/337432\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T03:39:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T03:39:17","slug":"witch-hunt-msps-investigating-me-were-being-directed-by-salmond-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/337432\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Witch-hunt\u2019 MSPs investigating me were being directed by Salmond \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nicola Sturgeon has said she believes some MSPs who investigated the Scottish Government\u2019s handling of sexual harassment allegations against Alex Salmond were \u201ctaking direction\u201d from him.<\/p>\n

The former Scotland first minister wrote in her autobiography, Frankly, that she thought either Mr Salmond or his allies were guiding some opposition MSPs on what to ask her.<\/p>\n

She accused her opponents in the special Holyrood committee of a \u201cwitch-hunt\u201d against her.<\/p>\n

\"AA special Holyrood committee found Nicola Sturgeon misled MSPs during their investigation into complaints against Alex Salmond (Jane Barlow\/PA) <\/p>\n

The committee ultimately found Ms Sturgeon misled the Scottish Parliament over the Salmond inquiry.<\/p>\n

\"Parts<\/a>\"Water<\/a><\/p>\n

However, she said the probe that \u201creally mattered\u201d was the independent investigation by senior Irish lawyer James Hamilton which cleared her of breaking the ministerial code.<\/p>\n

The former SNP leader said that while she was \u201ccertain\u201d she had not breached the code, \u201cI had been obviously deeply anxious that James Hamilton might take a different view\u201d, admitting that \u201chad he done so, I would have had to resign\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said that she felt \u201con trial\u201d as part of a wider phenomenon that when men were accused of impropriety, \u201csome people\u2019s first instinct is to find a woman to blame\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Sturgeon did admit to \u201cmisplaced trust and poor judgment\u201d in her autobiography, which was published early by Waterstones on Monday, having been slated for release this Thursday.<\/p>\n

\n

From a shy childhood in working class Ayrshire to wielding power in the corridors of Holyrood, Scotland’s longest serving First Minister @NicolaSturgeon<\/a> shares her incredible story in FRANKLY, coming this August. Signed Edition: https:\/\/t.co\/9xtiZmBnn7<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/YKEI1pxF19<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Waterstones (@Waterstones) March 19, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She wrote: \u201cThis feeling of being on trial was most intense when it came to the work of the Scottish Parliament committee set up to investigate the Scottish government\u2019s handling of the original complaints against Alex.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom day one, it seemed clear that some of the opposition members of the committee were much less interested in establishing facts, or making sure lessons were learned, than they were in finding some way to blame it all on me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it sometimes felt to me like a \u2018witch-hunt\u2019, it is probably because for some of them that is exactly what it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told, and I believe it to be true, that some of the opposition MSPs were taking direction from Alex himself \u2013 though possibly through an intermediary \u2013 on the points to pursue and the questions to ask.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Sturgeon described the inquiry, to which she gave eight hours of sworn evidence, as \u201cgruelling\u201d but also \u201ccathartic\u201d.<\/p>\n

MSPs voted five to four that she misled them.<\/p>\n

\"NicolaNicola Sturgeon said her famed relationship with Alex Salmond began to deteriorate when she became first minister (Andrew Milligan\/PA) <\/p>\n

The politicians began their inquiry after a judicial review in 2019 found the Scottish Government\u2019s investigation into Mr Salmond\u2019s alleged misconduct was unlawful, unfair and tainted by apparent bias.<\/p>\n

Mr Salmond, who died last year, was awarded \u00a3500,000 in legal expenses.<\/p>\n

Ms Sturgeon wrote of the inquiry: \u201cIt also gave the significant number of people who tuned in to watch the chance to see for themselves just how partisan some of the committee members were being.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot surprisingly, the opposition majority on the committee managed to find some way of asserting in their report that I had breached the ministerial code.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, it was the verdict of the independent Hamilton report that mattered.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said her infamous falling out with her predecessor was a \u201cbruising episode\u201d of her life as she accused Mr Salmond of creating a \u201cconspiracy theory\u201d to defend himself from reckoning with misconduct allegations, of which he was cleared in court.<\/p>\n

Ms Sturgeon said her former mentor was \u201cnever able to produce a shred of hard evidence that he was\u201d the victim of a conspiracy.<\/p>\n

\"NicolaNicola Sturgeon accused Alex Salmond of creating a conspiracy to shield himself from his reckoning with his own behaviour (Robert Perry\/PA) <\/p>\n

She went on: \u201cAll of which begs the question: how did he manage to persuade some people that he was the wronged party, and lead others to at least entertain the possibility?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn short, he used all of his considerable political and media skills to divert attention from what was, for him, the inconvenient fact of the whole business.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe sought to establish his conspiracy narrative by weaving together a number of incidents and developments, all of which had rational explanations, into something that, with his powers of persuasion, he was able to cast as sinister.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Sturgeon speaks about Mr Salmond several times in her autobiography, which also has a dedicated chapter to him, simply titled \u201cAlex Salmond\u201d.<\/p>\n

In it, she speaks of an \u201coverwhelming sense of sadness and loss\u201d when she found out about his death, which she said hit her harder than she had anticipated.<\/p>\n

Ms Sturgeon says the breakdown in their relationship happened long before Mr Salmond\u2019s misconduct allegations.<\/p>\n

She said it had begun to deteriorate when she became first minister in 2014 following his resignation in light of the independence referendum defeat.<\/p>\n

Ms Sturgeon claims her former boss still wanted to \u201ccall the shots\u201d outside of Bute House and appeared unhappy that she was no longer his inferior.<\/p>\n

She also accuses him of trying to \u201cdistort\u201d and \u201cweaponise\u201d his alleged victims\u2019 \u201ctrauma\u201d through his allegations of conspiracy.<\/p>\n

Ms Sturgeon claims that Mr Salmond, who later quit the SNP to form the Alba Party, would rather have seen the SNP destroyed than be successful without him.<\/p>\n

Despite her myriad claims against her predecessor, though, Ms Sturgeon said: \u201cPart of me still misses him, or at least the man I thought he was and the relationship we once had.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I will never quite escape the shadow he casts, even in death.\u201d<\/p>\n