Alex Salmond’s allies hit back at Nicola Sturgeon’s claims he leaked details of sexual misconduct saga

Allies of Alex Salmond have hit back at Nicola Sturgeon‘s claims he may have leaked details of his own sexual misconduct saga. 

The ex-SNP leader and Alba Party founder was cleared in 2020 of 13 sexual offence charges, including attempted rape, though his lawyer conceded during the trial that his client could have been a ‘better man’. 

The latest extract from Sturgeon’s soon-to-be published memoir, Frankly, centres around how Salmond reacted to multiple allegations of sexual misconduct levelled against him in 2018 – many of which made their way into the press. 

In the book Sturgeon denies any responsibility for the leaks and says that she does not know who was behind them.  

Controversially, she also claims in her memoir that it would have been ‘classic Alex’ to have made the leaks himself. 

Her remarks have caused fury among the Scottish political elite, with Kenny MacAskill – the man who succeeded Salmond as Alba Party leader – calling Sturgeon out for her ‘hypocrisy’.

Meanwhile, Chris McEleny, the party’s former general secretary, branded Sturgeon’s speculations a ‘fabrication’. 

MacAskill, a former SNP minister who succeeded Salmond as Alba Party leader, recently called for a public inquiry into the way sexual misconduct complaints against Salmond were handled. 

He posted on X: ‘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.’

Alex Salmond served as first minister of Scotland from 2007 but stood down in 2014 after losing the Scottish independence referendum.  

Sturgeon took over the top job and in 2018 allegations against Salmond began to surface, following a review of the Scottish government’s ‘policies and processes for addressing inappropriate conduct’ in the wake of the #metoo scandal. 

Salmond was accused of a string of sexual offences between June 2008 and November 2014, which ranged from him stroking a civil servant’s hair to trying to rape a former Scottish Government official in Bute House. 

However, in March 2020 he was cleared of all charges, although his lawyer Gordon Jackson started his closing speech to the jury with the words: ‘If in some ways the former first minister had been a better man, I wouldn’t be here, you wouldn’t be here, none of us would be here.

‘I’m not here to suggest he always behaved well or couldn’t have been a better man on occasions. That would be a waste of my time. 

‘But I’m in a court of law and I’m dealing, not with whether he could have been a better man because he certainly could have been better.

‘I’m dealing with whether or not it was established he was guilty of serious, sometimes very serious, criminal charges.’

Additionally a judicial review in 2019 found that the Scottish government’s investigation into Salmond’s alleged misconduct was unfair, unlawful and biased.

As a result Salmond received £500,000 in legal expenses.  

Chris McEleny, the Alba Party’s former general secretary, who was himself expelled following an investigation into ‘gross misconduct’ earlier this year, called Sturgeon’s remarks a ‘fabrication’.

He said the investigation into Salmond was a ‘stitch-up’ and claimed that a number of public bodies had ‘conspired to jail Salmond’.  

He said: ‘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 in the pages of the Scottish history books.’

The story about the investigation of sexual misconduct claims against Salmond was broken by journalist David Clegg, then political editor of the Daily Record.

Speaking on BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show, Mr Clegg, who is currently editor of The Courier, called the notion that Alex Salmond had leaked the story himself ‘a conspiracy theory too far’.

He said: ‘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.’

Me Clegg said a document arrived at the Daily Record office with the claims against Salmond summarised – but described the idea that it came from Salmond as ‘not credible’. 

He added: ‘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.’

Salmond died of a heart attack in North Macedonia last October, aged 69 – but before his death he maintained there had been a ‘conspiracy’ between his accusers to bring him down.

‘What he never did was show any contrition,’ lamented Sturgeon, who added that she felt ‘sick’ over the allegations.

In an extract published by The Sunday Times, the former First Minister added that ‘ruthless’ Salmond would have done anything to extricate himself from blame – even if it meant the downfall of his party. 

‘There was also never the merest hint of concern about the damage he did to the party he previously led. 

‘Indeed, it felt to me that he would have rather destroyed the SNP than see it succeed without him. 

‘He was prepared to traumatise, time and again, the women at the centre of it all.’

Sturgeon said the notion his accusers had collaborated with one another to accuse him of misconduct was ‘a fabrication, the invention of a man who wasn’t prepared to reflect honestly on his own conduct’.

She added: ‘That he tried to distort and weaponise genuine expressions of shock, in some cases trauma, was truly disgraceful, and it strikes at the heart of why I find it so hard to forgive him.’

At the point of realising his ‘thirst for revenge’ was greater than the bond between them, Sturgeon said she knew their friendship was over for good and she went through a ‘grieving process’.

She wrote: ‘For a time after we stopped speaking I would have conversations with him in my head about politics and the issues of the day.

‘I had occasional, vivid dreams in which we were still on good terms. I would wake up from these feeling utterly bereft.’

And even now after Salmond’s passing, Sturgeon admitted his impact on her continues and she will ‘never quite escape the shadow he casts, even in death’.

Ms Sturgeon ruled Scottish politics for years before she walked away from Scotland’s top job in March 2023 – shortly before her husband Peter Murrell was arrested in a police probe into the SNP’s finances. 

She was arrested in June 2023 in relation to the Operation Branchform investigation into the SNP’s finances.

Sturgeon was subsequently released without charge pending further investigation, while Mr Murrell – formerly SNP chief executive – was eventually charged in relation to the alleged embezzlement of party funds.

Earlier this year, the pair announced their separation and planned divorce.