Nicola Sturgeon accuses opposition of using her husband as a 'weapon'

The comments came during a terse exchange with Ruth Davidson in Holyrood, with the Tory chief raising Peter Murrell’s evidence in front of the Scottish Parliament committee probing the Government’s botched handling of allegations made against the former SNP leader. 

Sturgeon’s husband, who is the SNP’s chief executive, has been criticised by opposition MSPs over “contradictions and discrepancies” in his testimony.

In Tuesday’s committee session Murrell was asked about the meetings between Salmond and Sturgeon at the couple’s home.

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He said he had not known about the misconduct allegations against Salmond until they became public. He told MSPs that Sturgeon had not told him because the investigation was government business, which as party chief executive he was excluded from hearing.

Sturgeon has told parliament that no records of the meeting were taken because she was acting in her capacity as SNP leader and not as First Minister.

Under the ministerial code, if the meetings were government business they should have a civil servant present or a written record of the discussion.

During Thursday’s First Minister’s Questions, Davidson asked Sturgeon whose story does she “find most believable, Peter Murrell’s, or her own?”

The SNP leader told the Tory: “The fact of the matter is my husband had no role in these meetings, he had no role in the matters under investigation by the committee. 

“Ruth Davidson might want to attack my husband and use him as a weapon against me. People will draw their own conclusions about that, but it doesn't change the basic fact of the matter that he had no role in these issues”.

Davidson rejected the claim she was using Murrell as a weapon: “I'm asking about this because a group of women who came forward were utterly let down by the First Minister’s government and the fallout from that is still going on.”

Sturgeon said that her priority “was protecting the confidentiality and the integrity of the process”.

She added: “Now the committee will have the opportunity to question me on that, and it's right and proper they do so, it is because I do care about the implications of this both for women who came forward with complaints and for any woman who might feel the need to come forward with complaints in the future. 

“This is an inquiry into an investigation of sexual harassment and that is why we should all treat it seriously. But those who choose instead to indulge wild conspiracy theories I think make it less likely rather than more lately that we learn the lessons on that.”

Davidson said Sturgeon seemed “to think that all of our heads button up the back”.

She added: “Here's what we're being asked to accept that the chief executive of the SNP popped his head round the door to find the First Minister of Scotland, coincidentally his wife, her predecessor, Alex Salmond, his chief of staff, her chief of staff, and Mr Salmond's lawyer, all sitting unannounced in his living room. And he never asks a single question then, or since of what that's all about.

“And this morning, we now learn that Angus Robertson, a former deputy leader to Nicola Sturgeon was told, 11, years ago, of alleged inappropriateness by Mr Salmond. 11 years. And I think the first Minister's line is that she had no idea about that either. Another allegation that just passed her by. Does she really think that sounds plausible and is it seriously what the First Minister is asking us to believe?”

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“Yes,” Sturgeon replied, “Because it happens to be the truth and that may not suit what Ruth Davidson wants to be the situation, but I'm afraid that is the situation.

“And on the issue of conversations or lack of conversations between me and my husband, I sometimes wonder if the opposition here is revealing more about themselves than they are about me. The fact of the matter is, I am First Minister of Scotland, I deal with confidential matters every single day of my life.

"These range from national security matters through to market sensitive commercial matters and a whole range of things in between, and, I don't gossip about these things, even to my husband. 

“I am the First Minister of the country, not the office gossip and I take my responsibilities in that role, extremely seriously.” 

Sturgeon is due to appear in front of the committee before Holyrood breaks for the Christmas holidays.