Scottish independence plunges amid nationalist brawl between Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond

Amid row over Nicola Sturgeon’s handling of sexual allegations against her predecessor, momentum for independence crashes.

Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, in the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

A decade ago, no one would have foreseen that two best friends spearheading the Scottish fight for independence would fall out so spectacularly that the very prize they sought was now in jeopardy.

Former first minister Alex Salmond and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon are at loggerheads in a centuries-old ­Holyrood committee room over the government’s handling of sexual allegations against Mr Salmond.

The ramifications — initially a personal blow to Mr Salmond — are reverberating throughout the land, with Ms Sturgeon’s personal ratings stalling despite her pious handling of the pandemic and, for the first time, a poll showing the independence ­momentum appears to have backtracked.

The What Scotland Thinks website shows pro-independence support, which peaked at 59 per cent in October, plunged to 49 per cent last Friday. The latest polls also show the Scottish Nat­ional Party should win a ­majority at the Holyrood elections in early May, but 36 per cent of voters believe the Salmond-Sturgeon imbroglio is harming their perception of the party.

On Wednesday, Ms Sturgeon was to give evidence before the so-called Salmond inquiry, fighting for her political survival.

Alex Salmond. Picture: Getty Images

She has to counter allegations she broke ministerial codes; specifically, she has to fight back against Mr Salmond’s brutal testimony of last Friday that “the evidence supports a deliberate, prolonged, malicious and concerted effort among a range of ­individuals within the Scottish government and the SNP to damage my reputation, even to the ­extent of having me imprisoned”.

The battle began in November 2017 when two women made allegations against Mr Salmond at the time when he was first minister, which prompted an internal government investigation that finished in August 2018.

Mr Salmond then initiated legal action, insisting the internal findings should not stand, and in early 2019 a judicial review ruled the probe should not stand because it was “tainted by apparent bias’’.

More than £500,000 had been spent on this investigation. Later that same month, Mr Salmond was charged with sexual ­assaults, including one of attempted rape. He was cleared on all counts last March after a High Court trial.

The Salmond inquiry is looking into the failed government ­investigation and Ms Sturgeon’s actions in the process.

She has been accused of misleading the investigation about what she knew and when, and of prolonging the investigation into Mr Salmond.

While Ms Sturgeon signed off new rules in 2017 that limited a first minister’s knowledge of any investigation of a former minister, she discussed the investigation with Mr Salmond many times throughout 2018.

She says she first found out about the investigation on April 2, 2018, but it has emerged that allegations of a sexual nature were discussed three days earlier by her and Mr Salmond’s former chief of staff.

Ms Sturgeon’s husband, Scottish National Party chief executive Peter Murrell, sent texts to political allies the day after Mr Salmond was charged in 2019, saying it was a “good time to be pressurising” the police, and “the more fronts he is having to firefight on, the better for all complainers”.

Mr Salmond says he has more evidence of plotting against him by Ms Sturgeon and others close to her, but for legal ­restraints is unable to make them public.

Ms Sturgeon last week accused Mr Salmond of peddling an “alternative reality”.

“The behaviour complained of was found by a jury not to constitute criminal conduct and Alex Salmond is innocent of criminality. But that doesn’t mean the behaviour complained of didn’t happen,” she said.