Calls for transparency over Alex Salmond ‘hounding’ by civil servants

A veteran SNP politician called for transparency over the Scottish Government’s treatment of Alex Salmond – branding it “the scandal of our times”.

Fergus Ewing MSP called for accountability regarding “hounding” of the former first minister, after it emerged a civil servant is facing a police probe into evidence given at a Scottish Parliament committee.

Mr Salmond, 69, was cleared of a litany of sex offences against nine women at the High Court in Edinburgh in March 2020 – the day lockdown was brought in.

Alex Salmond at a boxing gym in Edinburgh in 2021 (Neil Pooran/PA). PA Media

The ex-SNP leader took legal action against the Scottish Government in 2019, when £512,000 was awarded, and again in November 2023.

Mr Salmond set up the rival Alba Party in 2021, claiming he was subject to “conspiracy” by former colleagues, and this summer attended the Euros, complaining that British Airways lost his “lucky” XXL size John McGinn strip.

Former colleague Mr Ewing pledged to “probe and question” the circumstances if and when Holyrood gains Parliamentary Privilege – used in the House of Commons by Tory MP David Davis to address the issue in 2021.

In June, Mr Davis said the investigatory powers of the Scottish Parliament should be strengthened due to “failure of democratic accountability”.

Mr Ewing claimed “concerted action” by a group of civil servants and special advisers allegedly in a bid to get Mr Salmond prosecuted and jailed was “the greatest political scandal of my lifetime”.

He criticised a culture of “heavily redacted” Scottish Government documents as a “cover-up” – and claimed that “at least six senior officials in the Scottish civil service, and current or former special advisers” had questions to answer.

Mr Ewing wrote that Mr Salmond “trounced the Scottish Government in his judicial review action” in 2019 with Judge Lord Pentland describing the civil service as “tainted with apparent bias” and awarding full costs.

He said this reflected “serious misconduct”, and cited an email sent by senior official Leslie Evans reading: “Battle maybe lost, but not the war.”

SNP’s Fergus Ewing has called for transparency over the allegations made against Alex Salmond (Jane Barlow/PA). PA Media

Accusations against Mr Salmond spanned between 2008 and 2014 and ranged from stroking a civil servant’s hair to trying to rape a former Scottish Government official in Bute House.

All the complainants worked for the Scottish Government or the SNP.

Mr Ewing said the situation was “grotesque, bizarre, unprecedented and almost unbelievable”.

He wrote: “That quasi declaration of war by the very top public official against a former FM is surely unprecedented. It is utterly outrageous and despicable.

“The concerted actions revealed by documents in the public domain demonstrate a determination to see that Alex Salmond was reported to the Crown Office to see him prosecuted – and jailed. Whatever happened to the duty of impartiality of the civil service?”

In 2021, an inquiry led by ex-Republic of Ireland director of public prosecutions, James Hamilton, cleared Nicola Sturgeon of breaching the ministerial code.

Mr Ewing questioned the Scottish Government’s decision not to publish “redacted” sections of the Hamilton report.

He added: “Recently a very senior public servant was revealed to be facing an investigation by police into conduct. But there are in my view at least six senior officials in the civil service, and special advisers, who have the gravest of questions to answer.

“It took David Davis, a Conservative MP and campaigner for personal freedom, to take up the case in the House of Commons, to expose the embarrassment that Holyrood does not have power to protect freedom of speech, in the form of Parliamentary Privilege.

“UK Minister, Kirsty McNeill MP, pledged this power will be devolved. As soon as it is, I intend to raise this scandal – the scandal of our age – to probe and question until the truth comes out.

“The truth has not emerged from the Holyrood Committee Inquiry, whose efforts were hamstrung by partisanship, and ministers took 21 months to hand over relevant documents – failing to do so until the fag end of the inquiry.

“Much of what they did reveal was massively redacted. One is left with the conclusion the cover-up will damn many people and may expose misconduct.

“They refuse to publish the redacted sections of the Hamilton report on the pretext that to do so would reveal the identities of complainants in the trial – where he was acquitted of all charges.

“If in Holyrood we cannot get to the bottom of the hounding of a former first minister, we frankly do not deserve to be a Parliament.

“What happened was scandalous and wrong.. The courts may yet determine whether it was also illegal.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on live litigation.”