ALEX Salmond has appeared to cast doubt on Nicola Sturgeon's political shelf-life by dubbing her the "present First Minister".
The dig was included in a letter written by Mr Salmond's lawyer, on his client's direction, to the Holyrood inquiry into his legal fight with the Scottish Government.
Mr Salmond recently accused Ms Sturgeon of repeatedly misleading parliament and breaching the Scottish ministerial code, a potential resignation offence.
The inquiry is investigating into the Scottish Government's botched probe into sexual misconduct claims made against by two civil servants in 2018.
Mr Salmond had the exercise set aside in a judicial review by showing it was "tainted by apparent bias", a Government flaw that left taxpayers with a £512,000 bill for his costs.
The inquiry asked Mr Salmond last night to appear before it next week, on Tuesday the 19th.
However the former FM's lawyer today declined on the basis of legal reasons and the Covid pandemic.
READ MORE: Alex Salmond seeks delay in giving bombshell Nicola Sturgeon claims under oath
He wrote: "Our client feels very strongly that it would send a very bad message to the rest of the country if
he were to flout that, particularly at a time when the present First Minister is set to further tighten restrictions on everyone else."
In a previous written submission shared with the Inquiry, Mr Salmond said Ms Sturgeon misled both the Holyrood chamber and the inquiry by wrongly characterising a meeting she had with him at her home in April 2018 as a "party" matter, and the meeting which arranged it.
He said that Ms Sturgeon knew full well that he wanted to discuss the Government probe, and indeed had helped arrange the April meeting four days earlier on that basis.
Her statements to the contrary were therefore untrue and a breach of the ministerial code, he said.
He has asked to delay his oral evidence to the inquiry, which would be given under oath, untuil February 16.
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