John Swinney refuses to comment on Nicola Sturgeon's claims about Alex Salmond
Scotland's First Minister John Swinney has said he must "focus on the country and the future" as he declined to comment on claims made by his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon.
Speaking after excerpts from Ms Sturgeon's memoir Frankly were published last week, Mr Swinney said he had read some sections of the book but had not yet finished it in full.
When asked about her claims regarding Alex Salmond, the current SNP leader said: "For me, in my role today, and what I have got to do for Scotland just now, I have got to focus on the country and the future."
He insisted: 'That's what is driving everything I do in my political life, what is the future of Scotland, what is the best future for Scotland.
'That is what I am best to concentrate my thinking on.'
Mr Swinney made the comments at an event in Edinburgh on Tuesday, where he was pressed by Chris Deerin, director of the think tank Enlighten, formerly known as Reform Scotland.
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Mr Deerin said Ms Sturgeon had portrayed her predecessor "at times as a bully, a bit of a drunk, as a man who was detached from the details."
In her memoir, Ms Sturgeon, who served as First Minister and SNP leader from 2014 to 2023, described how her relationship with Mr Salmond broke down.
She insisted her relationship with the late politician began to started to sour after she became leader of Scotland.
She added that her infamous falling out with her predecessor was a 'bruising episode', as she claimed Mr Salmond had created a 'conspiracy theory' to defend himself from reckoning with misconduct allegations, of which he was cleared in court.
Mr Swinney said, on Tuesday, that the memoirs gave a 'fascinating insight into Scottish political history', as he praised Ms Sturgeon for her leadership during the Covid pandemic.
The SNP leader, who was deputy first minister at that time, told the audience at the Enlighten event: 'We were all taking big decisions in difficult circumstance.'
He added: 'In a moment of absolutely unparalleled difficulty for the country, in which there was no manual, there was no precedent, I saw Nicola Sturgeon deliver considered and careful leadership as we moved our way through the pandemic, under enormous strain of delivering against those expectations, those difficulties.'
He went on to state that 'leadership is not easy', with Mr Swinney explaining: 'I feel that way, it is not straight forward, the decisions I take are invariably contested decisions.'
As a result, he said, making such decisions was 'inevitably' a 'very lonely place'.
'And I think some of that is explained in Nicola's book about what she felt at times.'
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