Tory MP uses Parliamentary Privilege to reveal explosive emails about Alex Salmond case
Tory MP David Davis reveals explosive messages claiming Nicola Sturgeon’s aide knew about Alex Salmond ‘sex misconduct’ allegations two months EARLIER than she says and ‘interfered’ in process
- David Davis used parliamentary privilege to reveal messages about Miss Sturgeon’s chief of staff, Liz Lloyd
- He said that a whistleblower passed him messages between senior SNP officials, including Peter Murrell
- Mr Davis said messages suggest a ‘concerted effort’ to encourage complaints about the former First Minister
- Miss Sturgeon has denied Mr Salmond’s accusations of an orchestrated plot to bring him down as ‘absurd’
A Tory MP yesterday revealed explosive messages which suggest Nicola Sturgeon‘s chief of staff was ‘interfering’ in the complaints process about the Alex Salmond case.
David Davis used parliamentary privilege to reveal messages which indicate Miss Sturgeon’s chief of staff, Liz Lloyd, knew about sexual harassment complaints in February 2018 – two months before the First Minister said she was told about them.
He also said that a whistleblower passed him messages between senior SNP officials, including Miss Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell, which Mr Davis said suggest a ‘concerted effort’ to encourage complaints about the former First Minister.
Miss Sturgeon has denied Mr Salmond’s accusations of an orchestrated plot to bring him down as ‘absurd’.
The First Minister is facing accusations she broke the ministerial code by misleading Parliament over when she found out about sexual harassment claims against her predecessor, Mr Salmond.
She had told MSPs she first learnt of complaints on April 2, before later admitting to ‘forgetting’ a meeting about sexual harassment claims with Mr Salmond’s former chief of staff, Geoff Aberdein, on March 29.
But in an astonishing intervention in the House of Commons, the former Brexit secretary said he has it ‘on good authority’ there is an exchange of messages from February 6, 2018, between Judith Mackinnon, who carried out the investigation into the complaints about Mr Salmond, and senior government official Barbara Allison ‘suggesting that the First Minister’s chief of staff is interfering in the complaints process against Alex Salmond’.
He said the investigating officer said in one message that ‘this interference v bad’.
David Davis (pictured in the Commons) used parliamentary privilege to reveal messages which indicate Miss Sturgeon’s chief of staff, Liz Lloyd, knew about complaints in February 2018 – two months before the First Minister said she was told about them
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and her chief of staff Liz Lloyd arrive at 10 Downing Street
Mr Davis said: ‘If true, this suggests the chief of staff had knowledge of the Salmond case in February, not in April, as she has claimed on oath.
‘The First Minister also tied herself in [to] that April date in both parliamentary and legal statements. She was of course aware earlier than that. The question is, just how aware and how much earlier?’
Mr Davis said he was passed papers from an anonymous whistleblower, including a download of text messages from Sue Ruddick, chief operating officer of the SNP, which is held by police.
He said the whistleblower told him the messages ‘point to collusion, perjury, up to criminal conspiracy’.
Mr Davis referred to one message from September 28, 2018, a month after police started their investigation, in which SNP compliance officer Ian McCann expressed disappointment to Miss Ruddick that someone who had ‘promised to deliver five complainants… by the end of that week had come up empty, or overreached as he put it’.
Referring to another message on the day after the Scottish Government’s judicial review case collapsed in January 2019, he said Miss Ruddick expressed to Mr McCann the hope one of the complainants ‘would be sickened enough to get back in the game again’.
He said Miss Ruddick was nervous about her name coming out as someone ‘fishing’ for people to come forward.
Mr Davis also referred to Mr Murrell’s messages saying it was a good time to be ‘pressurising’ police. He said Mr Murrell told the inquiry these messages ‘were ‘quite out of character’. That is no defence even were it true’.
During eight hours of testimony before MSPs earlier this month, Ms Sturgeon insisted that this event had eclipsed the meeting she had four days earlier with Mr Aberdein, causing her to forget it
Former Scottish National Party leader and former First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond is sworn in before giving evidence to a Scottish Parliament committee at Holyrood
A spokesman for the First Minister said: ‘Every message involving SNP staff has been seen by the committee previously. Their views have been widely reported as dismissive of them.’
On comments regarding the chief of staff, the spokesman added: ‘The comment read out by Mr Davis in relation to the chief of staff does not relate to Ms A or Ms B and, at that time, she was not aware that there was any connection to the former First Minister.’
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said last night: ‘If the First Minister’s side were aware of complaints against Alex Salmond in February 2018, an outrageous breach of those women’s privacy and confidentiality has occurred
‘February 2018 is also two months before Nicola Sturgeon originally claimed to find out about complaints. If her chief of staff knew then, and was interfering in the investigation, it blows another enormous hole in the First Minister’s story.
‘If civil servants said the First Minister’s chief of staff was interfering in the investigation in a ‘very bad’ way, then that is a sacking offence. It raises serious questions about how she tried to interfere, how she found out, who told her, when she knew, and who she went on to tell.’
Miss Sturgeon is currently awaiting the reports of two inquiries that could potentially torpedo her political career.
The first, a Holyrood Inquiry of MSPs, is looking into the Scottish Government’s botched handling of complaints against the former first minister in 2018.
A successful judicial review by Mr Salmond resulted in the investigation being ruled unlawful and ‘tainted by apparent bias’, with a £512,250 payout being awarded to him for legal fees.
Mr Salmond was also later acquitted of 13 charges following a criminal trial.
The second is an inquiry conducted by James Hamilton QC that will rule on whether Miss Sturgeon broke the ministerial code by misleading Parliament, failing to record meetings during the complaints procedure, and ignoring the advice of lawyers to drop the case against Mr Salmond.
Miss Sturgeon had previously claimed she first learnt of sexual harassment complaints against Mr Salmond on April 2, 2018, when he told her about them in the dining room of her home.
During eight hours of testimony before MSPs earlier this month, she insisted that this event had eclipsed the meeting she had four days earlier with Mr Aberdein, causing her to forget it.
She said: ‘What happened in my house on April 2, in my dining room with a man that’s been all these things to me for thirty years, was so significant, that that was the thing that will live with me forever. Did that, in my mind, slightly obliterate what came before that? Possibly.’
Miss Sturgeon also said she believed Mr Aberdein had talked of harassment in ‘general terms’ and she only realised they related to Mr Salmond on April 2.
MSPs at the inquiry were sceptical of her version of events and said it would be ‘unlikely’ she forgot such a meeting.
If Miss Sturgeon is found to have breached the ministerial code by misleading Parliament, there would be enormous pressure on her to resign.
The First Minister has refusing to preempt speculation of her future and said her priority is dealing with Covid.
In his testimony, Mr Salmond – once a mentor and close friend of Miss Sturgeon – accused his successor and senior SNP figures of orchestrating a concerted plot to bring him down.
Miss Sturgeon has denied this and insisted she was never out to ‘get’ Mr Salmond.
She told MSPs at the inquiry: ‘I feel I may rebut the absurd suggestion that anyone acted with malice or as part of a plot against Alex Salmond. That claim is not based in any fact.’
‘Alex Salmond was one of the the closest people to me in my life – I would never have wanted to get Alex Salmond. I had no motive intention or desire to get Alex.’
The row at the heart of the SNP has reached a crescendo with just months to go before crucial Holyrood elections.
Ms Sturgeon is on course to win a majority – albeit by just one seat, according to recent polls – and will likely use the mandate to demand another independence referendum.
