Alex Salmond is set to go head to head with his successors after he launched legal action over the Scottish Government’s handling of harassment complaints against him.
The former first minister and ex-SNP chief spoke out after the Court of Session confirmed that Mr Salmond’s case against Scottish ministers has been called.
The Alba Party leader is alleging “misfeasance” by civil servants and is seeking damages and loss of earnings.
In a furious statement, Mr Salmond said: “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.”
Current First Minister Humza Yousaf responded that the Scottish Government will “robustly” defend itself.
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, ex-chief of staff Liz Lloyd and former permanent secretary Leslie Evans are named among those facing allegations of “misfeasance”.
A spokesperson for Ms Sturgeon said she “utterly refutes” Mr Salmond’s claims.
Mr Salmond, who led the Scottish government from 2007 to 2014, originally took the government to court in 2019 and was awarded £512,000 over its mishandling of harassment complaints against him.
The investigation was judged to have “tainted with apparent bias” and the Scottish Government conceded defeat.
Mr Salmond was also cleared of 13 charges of sexual misconduct – including attempted rape – in a separate criminal trial in 2020.
Mr Salmond said today: “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 inquiries 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.”
Mr Salmond’s lawyer, Gordon Dangerfield, said the case accuses government officials of conducting themselves “improperly, in bad faith and beyond their powers, with the intention of injuring Mr Salmond”.
He said: “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.” Mr Yousaf was asked about the accusations during a press conference in Dublin on Friday.
He said: “Unsurprisingly to anyone listening or watching, the Scottish Government will defend its position robustly, but I’ll say no more because that’s a live case.”
