SNP veteran Kenny MacAskill has openly criticised the Scottish Government for ‘failing’ to hand over evidence in the Alex Salmond probe.
The MP for East Lothian rejected claims that some information had to be censored and backed a Holyrood committee’s demands for full disclosure.
A committee of MSPs are now raking over the bungled investigation which cost half a million pounds of taxpayers’ cash.
READ MORE: Alex Salmond inquiry in new fight with SNP Government over witnesses
Speaking in The Scotsman, Mr MacAskill said:
“Failing to deliver up all the papers in the Alex Salmond inquiry is simply unacceptable. It goes against the very ethos of the Scottish Parliament which is why the committee is right to stand its ground.”
MacAskill went on to criticise the “intransigence” of the Scottish Government's civil service chief, Leslie Evans, and said that the actions of the country’s top law office, the Lord Advocate, are “plain wrong”.
The piece from MacAskill, which was published in The Scotsman, added:
READ MORE: Alex Salmond trial documentary to be broadcast next week on BBC
“It’s extraordinary that so far there has been no resignation, not even it appears a modest redeployment in roles.
“Yet an expensive civil case was lost, and a gargantuan criminal trawl saw an acquittal on all charges.”
Ms Evans is scheduled to give evidence this month on the development of the procedure that underpinned the flawed Salmond probe.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel