NICOLA Sturgeon has dismissed Alex Salmond’s claim that her allies conspired against him as "a heap of nonsense".

The First Minister trashed her predecessor’s allegation on BBC Newsnight, and said she would “have her say” and "elaborate on that view" in due course.

She also claimed she had been too focused on dealing with Coronavirus to say how she felt when she learned the outcome of Mr Salmond’s criminal trial in March.

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After Mr Salmond was acquitted of 13 counts of sexual assault at the High Court in Edinburgh, said he had been denied a chance to present evidence of a conspiracy.

His legal team had wanted to tell the jury the former MP was the victim of a politically-motivated plot by people in Ms Sturgeon’s orbit who did not want him back to return to frontline politics as a potential rival.

However judge Lady Dorrian refused to allow it in case the trial drifted off course.

Mr Salmond is now writing a book in which he has said he will present evidence of the conspiracy and how it culminated in his prosecution and trial.

On Newsnight on Wednesday, presenter Kirsty Wark interviewed Ms Sturgeon at the Scottish Parliament about the Covid crisis, but also Mr Salmond. 

Ms Wark said: “He was a former close friends and mentor of yours and I wonder what you felt like when you heard the verdict?”

Ms Sturgeon replied: “The day I heard the verdict I was immersed in dealing with coronavirus and I’m not trying to kind of dodge the question but actually I was.

“Most of my - pretty much all of my thinking that day and in the days leading up to that and in the days since have been about coronavirus.

“Look, there’s going to be inquiries, parliamentary inquiries, where I will have the opportunity to have my say and be asked questions and scrutinised and you know, I’ll deal with that in the fullness of time.

“But right now, and at that point in time you’re asking me about, my focus on trying to deal with the immediate crisis the country is living through.”

The verdict was delivered on March 23, the same day the UK went into Covid lockdown.

However Scottish Government press officers regularly attended the trial to report back to Ms Sturgeon and her officials on its implications for the Government.

Ms Wark went on: “More people are becoming vocal alleging conspiracy around people close to you to bring him down. So what do you say to that?”

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Ms Sturgeon replied: “There was no conspiracy. It’s a heap of nonsense. 

“But I’ll, as I say, in the fullness of time get the opportunity to elaborate on that view.”

After the verdict, Mr Salmond’s former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars said the former First Minister’s book would be like a “volcanic eruption” for those at the top of the SNP.

Mr Sillars said the “rot” which would be exposed inside the party could be so bad that the Yes movement may need to set up a new party in it place.

Another ally of Mr Salmond, the East Lothian MP and former justice secretary Kenny MacAskill, also claimed “dark forces” had been at work around the trial.

He said there had been an “orchestrated campaign” by senior people in the Scottish Government and SNP who wanted Mr Salmond’s head “on a platter”. 

He accused prosecutors of pursuing charges that were “utter bunkum”, and the police of mounting an inquiry of “gargantuan proportions” while complaining about their budgets.