JOHN Swinney has falsely claimed he released all the Scottish Government’s legal advice on the Alex Salmond affair before Nicola Sturgeon testified to MSPs.

The Deputy First Minister was accused of a “deeply troubling” attempt to “rewrite history” after making the misleading assertion on BBC Radio Scotland this morning.

In fact, Mr Swinney only disclosed "crucial" material after Ms Sturgeon testified, including notes showing the Government “discounted” multiple warnings from counsel.

The timing was explicitly criticised by the Holyrood inquiry into the Salmond affair, which said it was frustrated at being unable to question Ms Sturgeon properly as a result.

The Scottish Tories said the deputy First Minister's actions were "astonishing".

Appearing on Good Morning Scotland, Mr Swinney  said he had gone further than any other Scottish minister in sharing some legal material with the Holyrood inquiry in December.

He then said: “Now parliament of course wanted more, and I accepted that, and I released the full legal advice before the First Minister appeared before the committee.”

That is flatly contradicted by the Holyrood inquiry report published today.

In a consensual conclusion, the cross-party group said it had been “substantially frustrated” by the late release of key documents, and that this meant the First Minister “could not be properly questioned”.

It said: “Whilst some documents were produced prior to the First Minister’s appearance on 3 March, crucial notes and opinions from external counsel were not made available to the Committee until after her appearance, on 4 and 5 March. 

“This meant that the First Minister could not be properly questioned on the Scottish  Government’s decision - making around the judicial review, particularly during December 2018. The withholding of these papers by the Scottish Government prior to the First

Minister’s appearance substantially frustrated the Committee’s ability to explore with the First Minister the Scottish Government’s position in relation to the defence of the judicial review.”

The inquiry looked at how the Scottish Government bungled a sexual misconduct probe into Mr Salmond in 2018, leading to him overturning it in a judicial review.

MSPs found the Scottish Government “was responsible from an early stage for a serious, substantial and entirely avoidable situation that resulted in a prolonged, expensive and unsuccessful defence” of Mr Salmond’s legal challenge.

In addition, it criticised the Government’s “seriously flawed” document disclosure through the judicial review, with the failure to share files with the court leading to extra costs. 

Mr Swinney only started to release the legal advice on the eve of Ms Sturgeon’s appearance at the inquiry after being threatened with losing his job in a no-confidence vote.

Material released after Ms Sturgeon gave evidence, and after she was quizzed at FMQs the next day, included some of the most damning notes from external counsel.

It showed QC Roddy Dunlop and solicitor advice Christine O’Neill warning the Government in December 2018 that they were “entirely unconvinced” of the benefits of continuing to defend Mr Salmond’s legal challenge given the “potentially disastrous repercussions”.

They also said they were ready to withdraw after a multitude of blunders by the Government - including a failure in its “duty of candour” to a court and its top official failing to provide a witness statement - brought the case “perilously close” to collapse.

They said they knew many of their past warnings had been “discounted”, but wanted to be sure the First Minister and others were “absolutely certain that they wish us to plough on regardless” given the potential harm.

None of this material was released in time for Ms Sturgeon to be questioned on it.

Tory MSP Oliver Mundell: “This is an astonishing rewriting of history from John Swinney. He is simply not telling the truth about when his Government decided to ultimately release vital legal advice.

“John Swinney shamefully abused his power to cover up evidence and protect Nicola Sturgeon until after she appeared at the committee.

“He completely failed to respect two votes in Parliament and repeated requests from the committee to release the legal advice. Ahead of the First Minister’s appearance he claimed to have released all of the legal advice, only to then drop another tranche of documents two days later.

“Honest John is simply no more. The public will see right through his attempt at spinning how the SNP Government behaved over legal advice.”

Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton, who sat on the inquiry, said: "One of the committee's biggest frustrations was the obstructionism of senior SNP figures. 

"John Swinney fought for months not to hand over legal advice to the committee despite Parliament voting for him to do so. He then proceeded to drip feed documents in such a way as to prevent the committee from questioning the First Minister over it.

"Now he is taking to the radio to rewrite history. 

“This is deeply troubling behaviour from the second most senior figure in the SNP, displaying a complete contempt for our parliament and its work."