Nicola Sturgeon broke the ministerial code and should step down, a member of the committee investigating the handling of harassment claims into former First Minister Alex Salmond has said.
Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said that he believes that statements made by Ms Sturgeon during her lengthy evidence session on Wednesday were "untrue" and that she previously misled the Scottish Parliament.
Mr Fraser said the committee will now begin drafting its report, but he believes the consequences for the First Minister were "clear".
It has been claimed the Ms Sturgeon misled Parliament over the date of when she first learned about the allegations surrounding Mr Salmond, and also over the leaking of the name of one of the complainers. Ms Sturgeon denies both these claims.
However, Mr Fraser told the BBC that on the evidence presented to the committee he believed the First Minister was not telling the truth.
Ms Sturgeon gave evidence yesterday
The committee is one of two investigations into the fallout of the Alex Salmond affair. A second one, headed by James Hamilton QC, the former head of public prosecutions in Northern Ireland, is investigating whether Ms Sturgeon broke the ministerial code.
Mr Fraser said: "Any conclusions that I drew and that other members of the committee drew were based on the evidence presented to us.
"The committee will now have to sit down and agree a report and we're starting work on that this week. "
READ MORE: Defensive Nicola Sturgeon launches blistering attack on Alex Salmond
He continued: "There have been three opinion polls showing that people in Scotland believe by a large majority that if the First Minister misled Parliament she should resign.
"I think the consequences will be very clear for the First Minister if the report makes that clear, and I believe it will, because the evidence presented to our committee - and also, I believe to Mr Hamilton - is clear that the statements made by the First Minister have been untrue.
"With the evidence that's been presented to the committee, it seems quite clear to me what the conclusions of the report should be, but we'll have to wait and see because we haven't even started that process of looking at these particular conclusions."
John Swinney faces a vote of no confidence
Mr Fraser said that the First Minister had not done enough to counter the claims made by Alex Salmond, and had not produced evidence, as he had.
The MSP said: "She denied those claims but the important thing was Mr Salmond was able to produce corroborating evidence from two other individuals in support of the statements he made.
"Nicola Sturgeon .... had no corroborating evidence to back herself up. That is why we (the Scottish Conservatives) are still of the view that Nicola Sturgeon has broken the ministerial code and has misled the Scottish Parliament.
READ MORE: Salmond inquiry — Nicola Sturgeon's evidence explained
"There is no evidence she presented yesterday to rebutt those claims, and they are very serious claims that a complainant's name was leaked by a member of staff within the Scottish Government to Mr Salmond's team - that's an appalling breach of privacy that has huge potential consequences for the complainant."
The First Minister also faces a motion of no confidence at Holyrood tabled by the Conservatives, as does Deputy First Minister John Swinney.
Mr Fraser said that both those motions remained on the table.
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