Sturgeon ‘misled parliament committee,’ inquiry finds – follow live

Boris Johnson began Cabinet on Tuesday by reflecting on what he said had been a “very dark and difficult year for our country”.

Mr Johnson said we mourn all those we have lost and send our deepest sympathies to their families, friends and loved ones, according to today’s “Cabinet readout”.

The PM also said the last year had also shown the great strengths of the British public, which had demonstrated such resilience and fortitude and had shown such willingness to work together for a common good.

The Cabinet paid tribute to the extraordinary service of everyone in the NHS, social care and in the public sector over the past year, along with all those who had kept the country going – from bus drivers to shop workers. Mr Johnson is said to have given a special mention to British scientists, whose response to the pandemic had been “incredible”.

He said that, if asked last March, he would not have believed it would have been possible to have developed a vaccine and delivered it to half of the UK adult population within 12 months.

Mr Johnson attributed the “absolutely astonishing achievement” to both British science and British business.

Catch up on today’s Inside Politics newsletter here:

Voters in Scotland do not want an independence referendum in the next two years, a poll has suggested as the Scottish government published a draft bill laying out the terms of a possible future ballot.

Nearly half (49 per cent) of voters think “coronavirus should be completely eliminated in Scotland” before a referendum is held while just 35 per cent support a vote in the next two years, according to a poll conducted by Hanbury Strategy for think tank Onward.

Support for independence fell by 6 points to 50 per cent during the week Nicola Sturgeon gave evidence to the Scottish parliament on the Alex Salmond affair, according to the poll.

My colleague Liam James has the full report:

The Scottish Tories have confirmed they will press ahead with a vote of no confidence in Nicola Sturgeon after a Holyrood committee found she misled parliament over her part in the botched Alex Salmond investigation.

Tory MSP, and member of the Committee on the Scottish Government’s Handling of Harassment Complaints, Murdo Fraser, said: “As James Hamilton said yesterday, it is for the Scottish Parliament to decide whether they were in fact misled. The committee verdict is in – Nicola Sturgeon misled Parliament and the public.”

As the party announced it would continue on with the vote of no confidence, Mr Fraser added: “If she ploughs on regardless, as she did against the advice of lawyers in the doomed Alex Salmond judicial review case, the First Minister will leave the country scarred by the most bitter divisions.

“It seems clear that Nicola Sturgeon will refuse to abide by the principle of democratic accountability for her Government’s monumental mistakes. It is time for someone to accept responsibility for letting women down, wasting more than £500,000 of taxpayers’ money, and the abundance of false and misleading statements from senior Government figures.”

It has been reported that the vote of no confidence is likely to fail as the Scottish Greens have already said they will not support it, securing Ms Sturgeon’s future.

Scottish Labour deputy leader, Jackie Baillie, who also sat on the committee, said permanent secretary Leslie Evans should take responsibility for the failed complaints process that was put in place.

Ms Baillie added: “The Hamilton report may have exonerated the First Minister of breaching the ministerial code, but the catastrophic and myriad failings this committee inquiry have revealed have called into question her judgement.”

During Nicola Sturgeon’s mammoth eight-hour evidence session, MSPs on the committee made many complaints about delays in the provision of information from the Scottish government and by its constant refusal to release legal advice.

These grievances were repeated in the report published this morning, including frustrations with how and when Alex Salmond gave parts of his evidence.

“This is an unacceptable position for a parliamentary committee to find itself in when trying to scrutinise the Scottish government, particularly when both the first minister and the permanent secretary stated there would be full co-operation with the inquiry,” it found.

The MSPs were also “frustrated that the former first minister, in common with the Scottish government, repeatedly missed deadlines set for the submission of evidence”.

The report said: “The actions of both the Scottish government and the former first minister have given the appearance that only information and documentation that would advance a particular position has been willingly given, leaving the committee to repeatedly ask for the information it was in fact seeking.”

It also revealed that on “multiple occasions” Mr Salmond sent documents directly to MSPs on the committee, rather than using a document handling process that had been established, to try to ensure the identity of the two women complainers was not revealed.

“Given the focus that the committee has had on confidentiality, this is a very serious situation,” the report stated.

The Committee on the Scottish Government’s Handling of Harassment Complaints faced “obstruction, evasion, deceit and lies”, one of its Conservative members has said.

MSP Murdo Fraser said the committee had unanimously agreed that the Scottish government was responsible for “serious and catastrophic failings”.

Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme after publication of the committee’s report, Mr Fraser said: “The people who misled the public here were members of the Scottish government.

“The sad story of this whole committee inquiry – and it’s reflected in the report that’s just been published – is that we faced obstruction, evasion, deceit and lies from far too many of the people who gave us evidence or didn’t give us evidence.”

A code of conduct complaint had been made in relation to the SNP members of the committee, he said.

Asked by the BBC if he was the person who leaked elements of the report, Mr Fraser denied this was the case and said the leaks had been “unhelpful”.

“What the committee report finds is there were two leaks from the Scottish government which potentially are criminal – the leak of a complainant’s name to Geoff Aberdein, one of Alex Salmond’s team, and the leak to the Daily Record of the details of the allegations against Mr Salmond,” he said.

“Both of these are potentially criminal acts from a senior official within the Scottish government.”

The Holyrood committee’s report, published earlier this morning, took particular issue with the “significant cost” the botched legal case against Alex Salmond caused the taxpayer.

Speaking about the Scottish government conceding the challenge brought by Mr Salmond, over the way harassment allegations against him were handled, the committee said: “This was clearly a devastating result … as well as being wholly unsatisfactory for the two women who had made complaints. There was also a significant cost to the taxpayer.”

Mr Salmond won a payout of more than £500,000 at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

The report went on to state that lawyers from the Scottish government had raised “substantial concerns” about the prospects for the case from the end of October 2018.

It said: “By 31 October 2018, senior external counsel had concluded that the government would likely lose the judicial review. That assessment only worsened as the case progressed and prior contact between the investigating officer and complainers emerged.

“The committee is also concerned that the first minister decided to proceed with the judicial review despite clear advice that it would likely fail.”

The report added that the Scottish government “was responsible from an early stage for a serious, substantial and entirely avoidable situation that resulted in a prolonged, expensive and unsuccessful defence” of the legal challenge brought by Mr Salmond.

MSPs are giving their verdict after a Holyrood committee found accused Nicola Sturgeon of misleading its investigation into the Scottish government’s unlawful handling of harassment allegations against Alex Salmond.

Deputy first minister John Swinney said he accepted the “conclusion of the report, that was agreed unanimously, which agreed that the best place to address if the first minister had breached the Ministerial Code rests with James Hamilton, and he reported yesterday and cleared the First Minister of any wrongdoing”.

The BBC’s Laura Maxwell, of Good Morning Scotland, said: “James Hamilton said that the First Minister gave an incomplete narrative of events. It’s hardly a ringing endorsement of her recollection of events.”

But Mr Swinney retorted: “His report shows very clearly that the first minister did not break the Ministerial Code. That is the fundamental conclusion of his inquiry and puts to rest months and months of smear and innuendo towards the first minister.”

He also said Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie was misleading the public, saying that the government refused to release information.

“After the Parliament voted twice for the Government to release legal information, I took the unprecedented decision of releasing information to the committee for their private consideration,” he told Ms Maxwell. “They were able to see that information on specific advice that was circulated.”

Meanwhile, Scottish Tory leader has said the committee’s findings prove “Nicola Sturgeon misled the public”.

The Committee on the Scottish Government’s Handling of Harassment Complaints has said it was “concerned” that Nicola Sturgeon did not disclose details of her meeting with Alex Salmond to the Scottish government’s most senior civil servant, permanent secretary Leslie Evans, until 6 June.

This was more than two months after a meeting at the FM’s home between herself and Mr Salmond, the report states.

“Given the sensitivities of the matter and the fact that it related to internal government complaints handling, the committee believes that it was inappropriate for the first minister to continue to meet and have discussions with the former first minister on this topic,” it said.

“She should have made the permanent secretary aware of her state of knowledge of the complaints and the facts of the meetings at the earliest opportunity after 2 April, at which point she should have confirmed that she would cease to have any further contact with Mr Salmond on that subject.”

Again, SNP MSPs on the committee did not agree with this finding.

Leaks from the Scottish parliament committee investigating the handling of harassment complaints against Alex Salmond were a “great shame”, its convener said.

Linda Fabiani said whoever leaked the information should have the “honour” to come forward.

Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme, she said: “I think that’s a great shame because there’s so much in this report that was taken seriously and that we reached unanimity on. And that should absolutely be the part from our report that the Scottish government considers.”

Ms Fabiani said she hoped whoever was responsible would have the “dignity and the honour to come forward”, saying the virtual nature of the committee meetings had made it hard to tell exactly what was “going on” during the sessions.

Some of the committee’s unanimous findings were “very critical” of the government at ministerial and Civil Service level, she stressed.

Ms Fabiani also criticised both Nicola Sturgeon and Mr Salmond for making it “difficult” for the committee to gain access to vital evidence.

“There certainly was frustration about the difficulty of getting evidence from both major sides in this investigation in fact,” she said on Tuesday morning.

The Holyrood report on Nicola Sturgeon was published less than 24 hours after a separate report by James Hamilton, the independent adviser on the Scottish Ministerial Code, which concluded that the FM had not breached its provisions.

The probing committee said Mr Hamilton’s work had been “completely separate from the work of our inquiry” and argued his findings should not discount their own.

“It remains the case that the Ministerial Code is also in our remit. We have conducted our own evidence taking on this subject,” Tuesday’s report states.

“We consider it important that we report to the parliament on the Ministerial Code in order to fulfil our remit.”