A special Holyrood committee is to instruct Alex Salmond’s lawyers to release government papers thought to show disquiet about alleged interference among senior civil servants. The committee investigating the botched government inquiry into claims of sexual misconduct against Salmond has agreed to send his lawyers an order under the Scotland Act 1998 that requires any such papers to be disclosed. There are suggestions, which have not yet been substantiated, that the documents may show senior officials were unhappy about the role of another government official. MSPs on the committee said those papers had not been released to it by the government – Salmond has indicated his lawyers will provide them if ordered to do so. The move came as Holyrood prepared to publish a redacted statement by former civil servant Lorraine Kay, stating that one of Salmond’s allies claimed he was leaked the name of an official who accused the ex-first minister of sexual harassment.
Kay, who worked in Salmond’s private office for five years, said Geoff Aberdein told her the name was leaked to him by a senior government official in early March 2018 and shared that name with her. Aberdein, Salmond’s chief of staff while he was first minister, alleges the senior official revealed Salmond was being investigated for alleged sexual harassment of female civil servants several days after the ex-SNP leader was officially told he was under investigation. Her account follows very similar statements published by the committee last week from Kevin Pringle, Salmond’s former spokesman, and Duncan Hamilton, an advocate who is also one of Salmond’s lawyers. Both men said they took part in a conference call with Aberdein – they did so the same day he spoke to Kay. Pringle told MSPs Aberdein was “in no doubt that a complainant’s name was shared with him”. The Scottish Conservatives argue these claims substantiate their calls for a no-confidence vote at Holyrood in Nicola Sturgeon, Salmond’s successor as first minister and his former protege. They claim she failed to tell the truth about what she knew about the internal inquiry and when. Sturgeon has disputed Aberdein’s account. Giving evidence under oath last week during a marathon eight-hour evidence session, Sturgeon told MSPs his claims had been denied by the government official concerned. Neither Aberdein nor the unnamed official testified to the committee for legal reasons, meaning their competing accounts have not been tested under oath. The Conservatives’ move against Sturgeon is seen by other Holyrood parties as a partisan attack designed to bolster the Tory campaign for the May elections, and it will fail to get any other opposition support. But Labour and the Liberal Democrats are preparing to back a no-confidence motion against John Swinney, Sturgeon’s deputy, over his failure to release all the government’s legal papers during its battle against Salmond’s judicial review that challenged the lawfulness of its internal inquiry in late 2018. The Scottish Greens are expected to oppose the motion. Swinney has told MSPs the government has no records of two critical meetings attended by Sturgeon and one of her senior aides, as well as Leslie Evans, the permanent secretary, and the government’s two external lawyers in November 2018. MSPs believe those lawyers, including Roddy Dunlop QC, one of Scotland’s leading advocates, warned her the government was destined to lose its case. Swinney has claimed no records were taken at those meetings: the committee believes the lawyers will have taken notes, and want those released. Kay has given statements to the Holyrood committee investigating the botched Scottish government inquiry into those historical complaints and to James Hamilton, the former Irish director of public prosecutions who is investigating Sturgeon for allegedly breaching the ministerial code. Kay, the unnamed third witness who Salmond referred to when he testified late last month, has told MSPs she was the first person Aberdein spoke to after meeting the senior government official, who cannot be named for legal reasons. She said Aberdein was “shocked” to be told by that official Salmond was under investigation and that he was also given the name of the complainer. Her statement is expected to be published by the committee later after it is checked for data protection reasons. A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The first minister has made the position on this clear in her evidence to the committee last week and looks forward to the findings of the report from the independent adviser on the ministerial code [Hamilton].”