Allegations that Nicola Sturgeon’s chief of staff “interfered” with the handling of sexual harassment complaints against Alex Salmond are “fundamentally untrue”, according to the woman involved. On Tuesday evening, the Conservative MP David Davis used parliamentary privilege to criticise the Scottish government’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against Alex Salmond. Davis told MPs: “I have it on good authority that there exists from 6 February 2018 an exchange of messages between civil servants … suggesting that the first minister’s chief of staff is interfering in the complaints process against Alex Salmond. “[If] true, this suggests that the chief of staff had knowledge of the Salmond case in February, not in April, as she has claimed.” But in a statement released by Rape Crisis Scotland, an anonymous complainer said that she had approached the chief of staff for advice, as a “trusted senior person in government”, but did not tell them “who the complaint was from, who it was about or the nature of the complaint”. She said that she was approached by Scottish government HR regarding an investigation into a complaint about Salmond’s behaviour during his time as first minister, and that she had been named as someone who had experienced such behaviour in statements gathered in the course of the investigation. She decided she did not wish to make a complaint herself, but was concerned that this could obstruct an investigation and that she would be obliged to cooperate. The statement continues: “[The chief of staff] offered to convey my concerns and what I wanted to happen to an appropriate senior civil servant, who was the most appropriate person to discuss the issue with. I agreed to this course of action. This was not ‘interfering’ but acting in line with my wishes.” Speaking in Westminster, Davis alleged there was a “concerted effort by senior members of the SNP to encourage complaints” against Salmond, and accused senior figures in the governing party of “improper” behaviour. Salmond has previously accused senior party and government officials of a “malicious plot” against him. The former first minister was cleared of 13 charges of sexual assault by a jury in March 2020. Asked about Davis’s comments at Wednesday’s coronavirus briefing, Sturgeon said: “I strongly refute the suggestions and insinuations from David Davis in the Commons last night. I’m not going to have this Covid briefing sidetracked by the latest instalment of Alex Salmond’s conspiracy theory. I have given eight hours of evidence to the parliamentary committee looking into this. They are now able to assess all the evidence they have taken.” There is a continuing Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish government’s handling of complaints of sexual harassment brought by two female civil servants against Salmond, which was declared unlawful on procedural grounds and “tainted with apparent bias” following a judicial review brought by the former first minister. A separate inquiry by James Hamilton QC concerns whether Sturgeon broke the ministerial code, including the allegation that she misled parliament about when she first learned of the Salmond allegations. Both inquiries are expected to report before the Holyrood parliament begins its election recess next Thursday.