FORMER LABOUR FIRST MINISTER SAYS “NO SERIOUS PATH” TO FM STANDING DOWN

A former first minister for Scotland has said Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond must stop “knocking hell out of each other in public”.

Labour’s Henry McLeish also said there is “no serious path” to the current First Minister’s resignation. It is just “wishful thinking” by the SNP's opponents and appears to be all they've got in the absence of any decent or well thought through policies.

Giving evidence at the Scottish Parliament committee inquiry into the Scottish Government’s botched investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against him last week, Alex Salmond said there was “no doubt” his successor as first minister broke the ministerial code but stopped short of saying she should resign.

Nicola Sturgeon appeared quite sad at times when recalling events for the committee, and looked to be on the verge of breaking down once or twice.

Appearing before the committee on Wednesday, Ms Sturgeon rejected his accusations and said she felt “let down” by his “absurd” claims of a plot of SNP figures against him.

The committee was set up after a successful judicial review by Mr Salmond resulted in the Scottish Government’s investigation being ruled unlawful and “tainted by apparent bias”, with a £512,250 payout being awarded to him for legal fees in 2019.

He was acquitted of 13 charges of sexual assault following a criminal trial last year, a verdict that Ms Sturgeon categorically stressed was not in doubt.

A separate inquiry is now investigating if Ms Sturgeon breached the ministerial code, as her predecessor claimed she did.

The Scottish Tories have followed up on those allegations by lodging a vote of no confidence in Ms Sturgeon, though there is no timescale for this to be debated and it seems even less likely that it will garner enough support to be carried. However they seem aware of this which indicates that the main motivation is to just repeatedly sling enough mud in the hope that some of it sticks.

Former Labour First Minister Henry McLeish told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “The First Minister, I think, has rebutted most of the challenges, assertions and allegations that have been made.

“In my view there is no serious path to the First Minister either resigning or suffering with a vote of no confidence in the parliament.

“What we should be doing now is for both the committee of inquiry at Holyrood and the separate inquiry into the breach of the ministerial code to be completed as soon as possible, get on with the election and get Scotland back to some normality.

“That’s a long shot in a way but we can’t continue to see two distinguished, prestigious people knocking hell out each other in public – that’s got to be left behind.

“I hope at the end of all of this the parliament and the government have learnt much. That’s the important thing. There are reforms required and that should be the first priority after we get this initial mess sorted out.”

New Labour leader Anas Sarwar used his first FMQs yesterday to side with the Tories in continuing to cast aspersions on the First Minister's character, while Ms Sturgeon hit back that both he and the Tories can play political games for as long as they want but she'll get on with trying to lead the country through the pandemic and out of lockdown. 

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