A former SNP minister has accused at least six senior civil servants and government advisors of plotting to have Alex Salmond jailed.
In an explosive intervention, Fergus Ewing MSP claimed high-ranking officials conspired against the former First Minister in what he called Scotland’s “greatest political scandal”. A 2020 government probe examined the handling of sexual harassment complaints made against the former SNP leader, who was later cleared of all charges against him in a separate criminal trial.
Ewing told the Sunday Mail: “The concerted action taken against Alex Salmond by a group of top civil servants and special advisers – apparently with the objective of ensuring he was reported to the Crown with a view to his being charged with serious criminal offences – is the greatest political scandal of my lifetime.
“Alex trounced the Scottish Government in his judicial review action, so much so that the Scottish Government’s very own lawyer and top KC deprecated the failings of his own client and the civil servants instructing him, in failing to reveal all the relevant documents to him. The judge in the case found that the process adopted by the civil servants was ‘tainted with apparent bias’.
“When the Scottish Government threw in the towel the judge awarded not just the normal costs but the whole expenses against them, reflecting what, on any view, was serious misconduct in the handling of the case by the civil servants. The concerted actions revealed by documents already in the public domain demonstrate clearly that there was 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?”
Ewing went on: “I find this campaign against Alex to be grotesque, bizarre, unprecedented and almost unbelievable. Recently a very senior public servant was revealed to be facing an investigation by the police into his conduct. I cannot comment on that matter, but there are in my view at least six senior officials in the Scottish civil service, and current or former special advisers, who also have the gravest of questions to answer.”
The Salmond Inquiry concluded that the government investigation into harassment complaints against the former FM was “seriously flawed”. Ewing served as a cabinet minister from 2016 until 2021 and is one of the SNP’s longest serving MSPs. His intervention is a further sign of division in the SNP and the growing number of who believe Salmond was unfairly targeted by Nicola Sturgeon’s administration.
Salmond has launched a civil action against the government and alleged there was a conspiracy among senior SNP figures, including Sturgeon, to imprison him – something she has strongly denied. But Salmond is seeking damages and compensation totalling millions for loss of earnings as a result of alleged “misfeasance”.
Conservative MP David Davis has used parliamentary privilege at Westminster – which gives legal immunity – to criticise the Scottish Government’s handling of allegations against Salmond. Ewing vowed to do the same thing as soon as Holyrood gets parliamentary privilege powers promised to Scotland by Labour.
He said: “The truth has not emerged from the Holyrood inquiry, whose efforts were hamstrung by overt party partisanship, and also the fact ministers took around 21 months to hand over relevant documents. Much of what they did reveal to the committee was massively redacted, covering up vast swathes of what was contained in the documents.”
He added: “One is left with the irresistible conclusion that the cover-up is of matters that they know, if published, will damn many people and may expose misconduct of a serious nature.”
Maureen Watt, an SNP member of the Salmond Inquiry, was appointed party president last week. The government has to date refused to release an unredacted copy of the Hamilton Report which investigated whether Nicola Sturgeon broke the ministerial code in how she dealt with sexual misconduct claims about her predecessor.
In 2021 then deputy first minister John Swinney narrowly survived a vote of no confidence over the failure to release documents. Ewing added: “They refuse even now to publish the redacted sections of the Hamilton Report on the false pretext that to do so would reveal the identities of the complainants in the Salmond trial – a 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 by any standards. The courts may yet determine whether what happened was also illegal.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman refused to comment on Ewing’s allegations. She said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on live litigation.”
Ewing previously had the SNP whip suspended for a week for voting against his own party. However John Swinney may feel unable to punish his latest intervention with a budget vote looming for his minority government. It comes after police last week confirmed they are investigating the Scottish Government’s head of Cabinet, Parliament and Governance, James Hynd, over claims he gave false statements under oath to the Salmond inquiry.
Last month Salmond’s lawyer, Gordon Dangerfield, revealed in the Court of Session that Police Scotland had opened an investigation into Hynd, codenamed Operation Broadcroft. Hynd was responsible for the government’s policy on the handling of complaints involving former and current ministers – the flawed policy under which Salmond was investigated.
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