Alex Salmond sues Scottish Government for £3m over 'cover up'

24 November 2023, 13:31

Alex Salmond has launched a multi-million pound damages court battle against the Scottish Government and promised a "day of reckoning" for former senior officials, including his successor Nicola Sturgeon.

The former First Minister is claiming the Holyrood administration plotted to frame him over sexual harrasment complaints during a botched inquiry it carried out in 2018.

Mr Salmond has previously won £512,000 from the government after a judicial review of its probe into the allegations was found to have been "tainted with apparent bias".

Now he has lodged a petition at the Court of Session claiming damages and loss of earnings, which could run to £3 million, for "misfeasance" - the wrongful exercise of authority to cause harm - by both Nicola Sturgeon and the former Permanent Secretary of the government, Leslie Evans.

He was subsequently cleared of 13 charges of sexual misconduct - including attempted rape - following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The government's mishandling of the intial two complaints triggered a protracted Holyrood inquiry which called both Mr Salmond and former first minister Nicola Sturgeon to give evidence.

During the inquiry, Mr Salmond attacked the then permanent secretary Leslie Evans - accusing her of having a "bias" against him and calling for her resignation.

The inquiry, which worsened an already sour relationship between Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon - who had previously been close - found she had misled MSPs in her evidence, but she was cleared of any breaches of the ministerial code.

Then in March 2021 - just days before he announced he was the leader of the fledgling Alba Party - Mr Salmond confirmed his intention to take legal action against Ms Evans.

In a bombshell statment today he said: "Throughout this tawdry business I have done my talking in court or in front of Parliament. That has resulted in victory in the Court of Session and being cleared of all charges in the High Court of Justiciary. I intend to continue with that practice.

"Despite Lord Pentland’s findings in the Court of Session that the behaviour of the former Permanent Secretary and her officials was “unlawful”, “unfair” and “tainted by apparent bias”, despite the ongoing police and crown office enquiries into the criminal leaks and potential perjury at the criminal trial, despite the astonishing revelations of misfeasance contained in the eventual publication of the government’s own legal advice, and despite the specific findings of the Parliamentary Inquiry into the conduct of the former Permanent Secretary and the former First Minister, not one single person has been held accountable.

"With this court action that evasion of responsibility ends.

"We have agreed to the sisting of proceedings to allow the criminal investigations into leaking and perjury to be completed. However, the calling of the action signals that the day of reckoning for the Scottish Government’s record of misfeasance on this grand scale will inevitably come.”

The Court of Session has confirmed the case, Alex Salmond v Scottish Ministers, has been called.

Mr Salmond was first minister between 2007 and 2014 and was the first person to be investigated by the Scottish Government under a new complaints procedure which meant that former ministers could be included.

His lawyer Gordon Dangerfield said Mr Salmond’s lawyer, Gordon Dangerfield, said the court action was "of misfeasance in public office in which we aver that public officials of the Scottish Government conducted themselves improperly, in bad faith and beyond their powers, with the intention of injuring Mr Salmond."

He said those namned in the petition included former Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans and the former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

He added: “We aver that public officials decided at an early stage that Mr Salmond was to be found guilty of allegations against him, regardless of the actual facts. As events snowballed, we aver that public officials then took part in the criminal leaking of confidential documents, the concealment of documents in defiance of court orders and a criminal warrant, the misleading of the court during judicial review proceedings, the soliciting of false criminal complaints, and ultimately the commission of perjury at a parliamentary inquiry.

"All of this, we aver, was done for political reasons, and specifically to injure Mr Salmond.

“Many documents which are relevant to these averments continue to be concealed by the Scottish Government despite repeated requests for disclosure of them over the course of the last year since this action was first raised. We aver that this refusal to disclose is a continuation of the misfeasance which began more than five years ago.

"A major aim of Mr Salmond in bringing this action is to obtain disclosure of this vital evidence and to blow apart the Scottish Government cover-up which has gone on now for far too long.”

Scottish Wellbeing Economy Secretary Neil Gray would not be drawn on the case when asked during a visit on Friday.

Speaking to the PA news agency on Friday, Mr Gray said: "Unfortunately, because this is now in a legal sphere, there is no further comment that I can make."

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

And a spokesperson for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service on the outstanding claim of perjury, said: “Correspondence from Mr Salmond’s solicitor will be responded to in due course.

“As is standard practice in any matter regarding politicians, this is being dealt with by independent prosecutors without the involvement of the Law Officers.”

Next month the Court of Session will also hear a case brought by the Scottish Government to overturn a ruling by the Scottish Information Commissioner that it should make public the information it received from the independent inquiry by James Hamilton KC into whether Nicola Sturgeon broke the ministerial code by not recording meetings she held with Alex Salmond about the allegations made against him.