Allies of Alex Salmond have dismissed Nicola Sturgeon’s suggestion that the former first minister leaked details about an investigation into sexual misconduct claims made against him.
Salmond was cleared of 13 sexual offence charges in 2020, including attempted rape, but during the trial his lawyer admitted his client could “have been a better man.”
In her upcoming memoir, Frankly, Sturgeon denied releasing details about the investigation, or any having any knowledge of who did. But she added it would have been “classic Alex” to have been behind the leak.
Alba party leader Kenny MacAskill called her a “hypocrite” while the party’s former general secretary, Chris McEleny, described the ex-SNP leader’s claim as a “fabrication”.
Sturgeon succeeded Salmond as first minister in 2014 until she resigned in March 2023.
In 2019, a judicial review concluded that the Scottish government’s investigation into Salmond’s alleged misconduct was unlawful, unfair and tainted by apparent bias.
Salmond, who died of a heart attack last October, was later awarded more than £500,000 in legal expenses.
He left the SNP in 2018 and formed the pro-independence Alba party in 2021.
MacAskill recently called for a public inquiry into the handling of sexual misconduct complaints against Salmond, who he succeeded as Alba leader.
The former SNP minister posted on social media: “It’s one thing to be supposedly candid in your autobiography.
“Quite another to block openness and transparency when in office and by those you continue to support.
“This hypocrisy is yet another reason for an inquiry into the Scottish government’s actions relating to Alex Salmond.”
Meanwhile, Chris McEleny claimed the investigation was a “stitch up” and that several public bodies had “conspired to jail Salmond”.
He added: “Alex Salmond delivered an SNP government, an SNP majority and an independence referendum whereas Nicola Sturgeon delivered nothing whatsoever for the national cause.
“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 is in the pages of the Scottish history books.”
Journalist David Clegg broke the story about the Salmond investigation when he was political editor of the Daily Record.
He told Scotland’s The Sunday Show that he did not believe there was any truth in Sturgeon’s leak claims.
Clegg, now editor of The Courier, said: “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.”
He said the “factual account” of what happened when the story emerged was laid out in his book, Break-Up, which he co-wrote with journalist Kieran Andrews.
Clegg recalled: “A document turned up in the post at the Record offices.
“It had these claims summarised and over the course of that evening we had to authenticate them and work out whether they were legitimate.
“There is obviously some mystery and speculation about what went on seven years ago and how that happened.
“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.
“I have heard this from people close to Nicola Sturgeon before and it’s always struck me as not credible and I would be very surprised if it was the case.”
When asked if he knew the source of the leak, Clegg said: “I have had many nights thinking about who may have sent that in and I’ve had some suspicions over the years and guesses – but the truth is I’m not even sure who it was.”
In her book extract, published in The Sunday Times, Nicola Sturgeon also dismissed suggestions of a “conspiracy” between the Scottish government, civil service, the complainants and the Crown Office against Salmond.
“I think that’s fanciful as well,” said Mr Clegg.
“In general, I’m always of the view that the simplest explanation is probably the most likely one.
“And that would be that somebody thought this information was in the public interest and was concerned that it was going to be covered up so tried to get it out.”
Sturgeon previously spoke about Salmond in a Financial Times interview in January, where she said he “would be really rough on people.”
Salmond’s widow, Moira, later said comments about her husband had caused the family “great distress”.
At the time, she added: “Attacks by the living on the dead will seem to many as deeply unfair.
“My wish, and sincere hope, is that these attacks will now stop.”
The extract is the second to be published from Sturgeon’s memoir.
In the first, published in The Times on Saturday, the former first minister described her arrest by police investigating the SNP’s finances as the worst day of her life.
Sturgeon describes being questioned by detectives as part of Operation Branchform.
She also writes about her “utter disbelief” about police raiding the home she shared with her husband Peter Murrell in April 2023.
The former first minister was later exonerated and has since separated from Mr Murrell who has been charged with embezzlement.
Elsewhere in the extracts, the former SNP leader describes the pain of suffering a miscarriage and sets out her views on sexuality, which she says she does not consider “to be binary”.
Frankly will be published on Thursday 14 August.
Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon once formed a formidable partnership which dominated the SNP and then Scottish politics itself.
They brought Scotland within touching distance of independence in 2014.
This was something which even some supporters of independence would not have believed to have been possible so quickly a few years earlier.
The latest extracts from Nicola Sturgeon’s memoirs serve as a reminder of the spectacular implosion of their relationship.
It also reignites the question of Alex Salmond’s legacy.
His friends and political allies have wanted his public reputation restored since his acquittal in 2020.
Many – but not all – of those who were closest to him are no longer prominent within the SNP but are still powerful voices within the independence movement or the Alba party, which Salmond founded.
First Minister John Swinney – who was also a key figure in Salmond’s administration as finance secretary – wants to move the SNP forward and chart the road ahead.
But nine months from the Scottish election, some will wonder what such an explosive account of the end of the relationship at the heart of the SNP will do to the party’s prospects of securing re-election.
