Alex Salmond's allies turn on Nicola Sturgeon over leak claims
The former first minister and SNP leader suggested in her memoir Frankly, which has been serialised by The Times and The Sunday Times, that her predecessor gave the story to a tabloid.
In the book, Sturgeon denied leaking the details herself or being part of a wider conspiracy against the man she once regarded as a friend and mentor. But she added it would have been 'classic Alex' to have been behind the leak as he was practised in the 'dark arts' of media manipulation and might have wanted to take control of the narrative and paint himself as a 'victim'.
Her remarks caused outrage among friends and allies of Salmond, who died last year, aged 69 still determined to restore his public reputation and prove that he had been wronged by his former party.
• Iain Macwhirter: Dancing on Alex Salmond's grave does Nicola Sturgeon no favours
The twice SNP leader was cleared in 2020 of 13 sexual offences at the High Court in Edinburgh. Even his lawyer admitted Salmond 'could have been a better man'.
There has been feverish speculation over who leaked details of an initial government investigation into his conduct as first minister to the Daily Record in August 2018.
Alex Neil, a former SNP minister, said Sturgeon should issue a retraction and offer an apology to Salmond's widow, Moira, 'for the hurt she has caused her'.
Sir David Davis, the former Conservative minister and a long-term friend of Salmond, said: 'Everybody knows it wasn't Alex who leaked it. End of story. If you want to know who it was, go on Twitter [X].'
David Clegg, the journalist who broke the story of the investigation in the Daily Record, said Sturgeon's claim was 'not credible'. He told the BBC1 Sunday Show: 'I find that a conspiracy theory too far, but I think it shows the level of suspicion and the deep rift that had formed between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon prior to his death.'
Clegg, who now edits the Dundee-based Courier, said that even he did not know who had sent a document about the inquiry to the paper.
'There is obviously some mystery and speculation about what went on seven years ago and how that happened,' he added. 'But if it was Alex Salmond who had leaked it, when I phoned him up that night to put the claims to him, he did an incredible acting job of seeming surprised and shocked.'
Salmond left the SNP after claims about his conduct emerged and formed the Alba Party in 2021.
Kenny MacAskill, Alba's leader, accused Sturgeon of 'rewriting history'.
Chris McEleny, another Salmond loyalist, said: 'Nicola might think she can fabricate her own version of the truth now that Alex is no longer here but the reality is her book will end up in a bargain basket whilst Alex Salmond will reside in the pages of the Scottish history books.'
In the memoir Sturgeon recalls the moment in April 2018 at her home on the outskirts of Glasgow when Salmond informed her of the allegations against him. 'The substance of the complaints, one in particular, shocked me. I felt sick', she wrote.
However, Sturgeon added that it quickly became evident her predecessor as first minister wanted her 'to intervene and to stop the investigation in its tracks or divert it into some kind of siding'.
Her refusal to do so, she said, made the break-up of one of the most successful partnerships in modern British politics all but inevitable.
In 2019 the findings of a judicial review into the Scottish government investigation — which had also been leaked to the Record the day before publication — concluded that the Scottish government's investigation into Salmond's alleged misconduct was unlawful, unfair and tainted by apparent bias.
Salmond was awarded £500,000 of public money for legal expenses.
Joanna Cherry KC, a former SNP MP and Salmond loyalist, posted on X: 'The idea that Alex leaked the existence of them [the allegations] to the Daily Record is ludicrous.'
Dame Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour's deputy leader, said: 'Remarkably Nicola Sturgeon's memory of events seems to be returning, as she appeared to suffer from amnesia when she was before the parliamentary inquiry into the handling of sexual harassment complaints against Alex Salmond.
'As a result of her dismal lack of delivery in office, Nicola Sturgeon's legacy will be defined instead by political division and personal drama.'
The Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said: 'It is disappointing that, when Nicola Sturgeon had the opportunity to tell the whole story to the committee, she did not at that point tell us what she is saying now. It seems that book sales matter more to her than being open and truthful when it mattered.'
Sturgeon was also facing intense criticism over her admission, in her book, that she may have been 'wiser' not to drag her heels on gender ID.
The former first minister's bills to make it easier for people to change their sex in official paperwork dogged her final years in office. The legislation passed in Holyrood but was blocked by the Conservative UK government.
In an interview with ITV's Julie Etchingham on Sunday night Sturgeon appeared to go further and said she should have 'paused' the bill. She said that she had not expected her proposed law to provoke such a backlash.
Sturgeon said: 'I didn't, I think, anticipate as much as I should have, some of the concerns that might be triggered. At the point I felt it was becoming polarised, I should have said, 'Right, OK, let's pause'.'However, she told Etchingham that she remained convinced that the rights of trans people and women were 'not irreconcilable at all'.
Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at gender-critical human rights charity Sex Matters, said before the interview was broadcast: 'Sturgeon's reflections are much too little and years too late. Gender self-ID was deeply unpopular and her government's attempt to force it through was anti-democratic.
'She deserved the consequences, but the Scottish people didn't. It's clear from her remarks that Sturgeon still fails to understand the importance of sex-based rights, which shows her lack of intellectual integrity and compassion.'
Trina Budge, a director of For Women Scotland, another gender critical group, said: 'With the benefit of hindsight, though, it is perhaps fortuitous that she did dig her heels in. A softer and less pig-headed approach would not have brought the matter to a head in the conclusive way it did, with self-ID crushed in the courts and the biological definition of woman resolved once and for all.'
There was some sympathy for Sturgeon over the weekend. Val McDermid, the crime novelist, said the former first minister, a friend, had been treated 'appallingly' by the police and the media.
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