Leaked messages reveal senior SNP members 'encouraged complaints' in Salmond case, MP says
Video report by ITV News Scotland Correspondent Peter Smith
Words by ITV News Multimedia Producer Ann Yip
Leaked text messages suggest senior members in the Scottish National Party, including Nicola Sturgeon's husband, "pressurised" complainants and "meddled" with the police investigation of Alex Salmond, an MP told the Commons.
Using his parliamentary privilege, David Davis, MP for Haltemprice and Howden, discussed the Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish government’s unlawful investigation of sexual harassment allegations against the former first minister.
Mr Salmond was cleared of 13 charges at the High Court in Edinburgh in March 2020.
The MP said SNP Chief Executive Officer Peter Murrell, who is Mrs Sturgeon's husband, coordinated Sue Ruddick and Iain McCann in the handling of complainants and that there was a "concerted effort by senior members of the SNP to encourage complaints".
He also accused Mrs Sturgeon's chief of staff, Liz Lloyd, of interfering in the complaints process.
Revealing the contents of some text messages sent to him by a whistleblower, Mr Davis said one complainant told Ms Ruddick, SNP Chief Operating Officer, she was "feeling pressurised by the whole thing rather than supported".
He also claimed Mr McCann, SNP’s Compliance Officer, "expressed great disappointment to Ruddick that someone who had promised to deliver five complainants to him by the end of that week had come up empty". This was a month after police had started their investigation of the criminal case in September 2018, Mr Davis said.
In January 2019, after the Scottish Government lost the judicial review over its handling of the Salmond investigation, the MP claimed Ms Ruddick had texted Mr McCann that she hoped one of the complainants would be "sickened enough to get back in the game".
Later that month, she told Mr Murrell the complainant was now “up for the fight" and "keen to see him go to jail”.
Mr Davis said Ms Ruddick herself expressed nervousness about being exposed for "fishing for others to come forward".
An MP at an SNP National Executive Committee in early January 2019 even raised concerns that SNP leaders were "suborning" witnesses, Mr Davis said text messages revealed.
Shortly after Mr Salmond was charged on January 24, 2019, Mr Murrell sent messages saying it was a good time to be “pressurising” detectives, and “the more fronts (Salmond) is having to firefight on the better for all complainants” - according to Mr Davis.
The MP said the text messages revealed SNP leaders were in contact with potential witnesses while a criminal investigation was ongoing. He told the Commons: "Meddling in an ongoing police inquiry is at best improper, and at worst criminal."
Mr Davis continued to accuse Mrs Sturgeon's Chief of Staff, Liz Lloyd, of lying about when she had known about the Salmond allegations and interfering in the complaints process.
He said he understands that Judith MacKinnon, who was the investigating officer on the case, had messaged Barbara Alison: "Liz interference v bad" on February 6, 2018.
The MP said this suggests the Chief of Staff knew about the Salmond allegations in February, not in April, as she had claimed previously.
Mr Davis accused the Scottish government of playing "fast and loose with the facts in a way that, if it had succeeded, would have jeopardised the whole process of justice".
He continued: "For me, that is even bigger than the grotesque waste of a million pounds."
A spokesperson for the First Minister: “As with Mr Salmond’s previous claims and cherry picking of messages, the reality is very different to the picture being presented.
“Every message involving SNP staff has been seen by the committee previously. Their views have been widely reported as dismissive of them.” On the comment regarding the Chief of Staff, a spokesperson for the First Minister, said: “The comment read out by Mr Davis in relation to the Chief of Staff does not relate to Ms A or Ms B and, at that time, she was not aware that there was any connection to the former First Minister."
ITV News Scotland Correspondent Peter Smith on the whistleblower comments
After being acquitted of criminal charges, Alex Salmond has alleged there was a plot against from key people in Nicola Sturgeon’s government. He also says the damning evidence to prove it being suppressed.
Tonight, using parliamentary privilege which protects him from prosecution, Conservative MP - and long-term friend of Mr Salmond - David Davis read out evidence he says was given to him from a whistleblower.
He spoke about cover ups and interference, particularly in reference to Ms Sturgeon’s own chief of staff, Liz Lloyd. She is the First Minister’s closest confidante, which brings serious allegations even closer to the inner circle of Scottish politics.
In his speech David Davis said there was evidence that two civil servants handling allegations of sexual misconduct against Alex Salmond were messaging each other to complain about Liz Lloyd meddling in their investigation.
Most pertinently these messages between the civil servants were two months before Nicola Sturgeon and her chief of staff say they even knew an investigation into Alex Salmond was happening.
The First Minister has denied any wrongdoing. Tonight her spokesperson rather helpfully acknowledged these messages do exist about her chief of staff’s “very bad interference” into the investigation, but said, at that time, Liz Lloyd was not aware there was any connection to Alex Salmond.
Alex Salmond will surely have been watching this closely, seeing documents that have never been handed over to the Scottish Parliamentary inquiry now being read out by a Tory in Westminster and confirmed as being real by the Scottish Government. It may lend weight to his allegations evidence is being suppressed, and raises questions for Nicola Sturgeon.
Is it plausible she knew nothing if her chief of staff was aware something was going on?
The First Minister denies breaking the ministerial code by misleading parliament over when she first knew about the investigation into Alex Salmond. Two separate inquiries into alleged ministerial code breaches are due to give their verdict within the next 10 days.
What has happened so far?
The Scottish government lost a judicial review launched by Mr Salmond in January 2019 as Scotland's highest civil court said the government's Mr Salmond was unlawful and "tainted with apparent bias".
Shortly afterwards, Ms Sturgeon referred herself to independent advisors to rule on whether she breached the ministerial code after being accused of misleading Parliament over when she found out about the complaints against Mr Salmond. The inquiry is being led by James Hamilton QC.
Ms Sturgeon said she had been told about the allegations by Mr Salmond when he met her in her home on April 2, 2018. But it was later found that Mr Salmond's former chief of staff Geoff Aberdein had told Ms Sturgeon about the complaints in her office four days before that meeting.
At around the same time that Ms Sturgeon referred herself, MSPs agreed to hold a Holyrood inquiry into the government's handling of the Salmond case.
Both the QC-led inquiry and the Holyrood inquiry are ongoing.
A year later in March 2020, Mr Salmond was acquitted of 13 charges at the High Court in Edinburgh.