ALEX Salmond has contradicted Nicola Sturgeon’s account to Parliament over whether she passed on a name of a complainant to her predecessor's former chief of staff.

At First Minister’s Questions yesterday, Ms Sturgeon was asked by interim Labour leader Jackie Baillie if she informed Geoff Aberdein the name of one of the women who had brought forward allegations against Mr Salmond.

In a follow-up by Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie, Ms Sturgeon said that “to the very best of my knowledge, I do not think that happened”.

Mr Rennie added: “What I want to understand is this: following the revelation that that was an allegation, did the First Minister herself investigate the matter to find out the truth as to whether that information was passed on?

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“The lack of such action by the First Minister would be negligence, because there is corroborating evidence that that did happen. Is the First Minister saying that they are lying?”

Ms Sturgeon said: “ It is not my belief that that happened, but a committee process is under way right now and there is a process separate from the committee in which the independent adviser on the ministerial code is looking at all these matters.

“I am allowing those processes to take their course, which I think is the right and proper way for me to proceed.”

But at Mr Salmond’s appearance in front of MSPs investigating the handling of complaints against him, Ms Baillie pressed Mr Salmond on the allegations that the name of a complainant was leaked.

She asked Mr Salmond "was a name of complainant shared?"

Mr Salmond said: "Yes."

When asked how he knew that, Mr Salmond added: "My former chief of staff told me that."

He added that there are "three other people who know that to be true".

Ms Sturgeon told Ms Baillie on Thursday that she “will answer all those questions in detail when I appear before the committee” next week.

The First Minister added: “Alex Salmond claimed that the name of a complainant was given. That is not the same thing as accepting that that is the case.

“Those are exactly the matters, along with many other matters, that I will have the opportunity to get into when I appear before the committee.

"I will also explain why I met Alex Salmond and, crucially, what I did not do after I met him, which was to seek to intervene in the process or to, in any way, sweep the complaints under the carpet.”