ALEX Salmond was reported to have behaved inappropriately towards female staff at Edinburgh Airport more than a decade ago, one of Nicola Sturgeon’s key allies has confirmed.
Angus Robertson said he was called by an airport manager in 2009 about Mr Salmond’s perceived “inappropriateness” towards women working there.
After the then First Minister denied it to Mr Robertson, the matter was regarded as “resolved”.
At the time, Mr Robertson was the SNP’s leader in Westminster.
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In his first written evidence to the Holyrood inquiry into the Salmond affair, Mr Robertson said: “I was asked if I could informally broach the subject with Mr Salmond to make him aware of this perception.
“I raised the matter directly with Mr Salmond, who denied he had acted inappropriately in any way.
“I communicated back to the Edinburgh Airport manager that a conversation had happened. “The matter being resolved, and without a formal complaint having been made, it was not reported further.”
Mr Robertson, who is hoping to enter Holyrood next year as the MSP for Edinburgh Central, denied having any communications or interactions with the current First Minister, her officials or special advisers in his capacity as SNP Westminster about any other sexual misconduct allegations or complaints against Mr Salmond.
However, Mr Robertson ceased to be SNP Westminster leader in 2017, when he lost his Moray seat at that year’s general election to Tory Douglas Ross.
Two civil service complaints against Mr Salmond only came forward the following year.
The inquiry is looking at how the Government botched a sexual misconduct probe into claims made against Mr Salmond in 2018, costing taxpayers more than £512,000.
The former First Minister had the exercise overturned in a judicial review by showing it had was “tainted by apparent bias” from the start because the investigating officer appointed had been in prior contact with his accusers.
Edinburgh Airport has come up before in the inquiry’s work.
In August, the Scottish Government’s top official, Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans, told MSPs she raised the issue directly with Ms Sturgeon in November 2017.
At the time, Sky News had been investigating an alleged “incident” a the airport, and Ms said Mr Salmond had been contacting Scottish Government staff about it directly.
She said one person had been “extremely concerned” by the contact.
Ms Evans told the inquiry’s first evidence session: “I did mention that to the First Minister. I told her about that. I said I was concerned."
On Tuesday this week, Ms Sturgeon’s husband, the SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, told the inquiry he learned of Sky News’s interest on 4 November 2017 when he received an email about it at 7.27pm, and that he had told his wife, and that she spoke to Mr Salmond about it the following morning.
In her written evidence, Ms Sturgeon said he denied sexual misconduct, but it left her with a “lingering concern that allegations about Mr Salmond could materialise at some stage”.
She said: “In early November 2017, the SNP received a enquiry from Sky News about allegations of sexual misconduct on the part of Alex Salmond.
“I spoke to Mr Salmond about this allegation at the time. He denied it and, as it happened, Sky did not run a story about it at that time. Since the identity of the individuals was not made known to us and they did not approach the SNP directly, there was no further action that it would have been possible to take.
“However, even though he assured me to the contrary, all of the circumstances surrounding this episode left me with a lingering concern that allegations about Mr Salmond could materialise at some stage.”
Sky News would eventually run a story about Mr Salmond and Edinburgh Airport in autumn 2018, after news broke of the Government investigation into his conduct became public.
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