As the SNP conference weekend kicks off, another Scottish story is starting to take shape. It has emerged that detectives north of the border are now investigating allegations that a senior civil servant gave a false statement under oath to an inquiry into sexual misconduct allegations involving Alex Salmond. Edinburgh’s Court of Session was informed today that Police Scotland is now looking into the Scottish government’s head of cabinet, parliament and governance, James Hynd, as part of the investigation entitled Operation Broadcroft. Good heavens…
Ex-SNP leader Salmond is taking legal action agains the Scottish government – with the former FM alleging ‘malfeasance’ by civil servants and seeking ‘significant damages’. Salmond claims that Scottish civil servants ‘conducted themselves improperly, in bad faith and beyond their powers’, with this allegedly happening during an investigation by civil servants over claims that Salmond had acted inappropriately towards a number of women during his time in office. Salmond’s lawyer, Gordon Dangerfield, insists: ‘There’s a very, very specific case that in my submission is self-evident in these averments: that the head of cabinet — a very, very senior civil servant, Mr James Hynd — gave a false statement on oath at the inquiry.’
Others names in the ongoing court case include Nicola Sturgeon and former Scottish government permanent secretary Leslie Evans. Salmond’s legal team has claimed that the pair were involved ‘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’. Crikey.
Salmond was acquitted of 14 sexual assault charges in 2020 – and alleged then that there was a conspiracy against him, led by senior SNP figures close to his successor Nicola Sturgeon. The SNP’s Dear Leader strenuously denied being part of a cover-up – though admitted that the matter had ruined her relationship with her predecessor, one that she remembers as being ‘very important to me, politically and personally, for most of my life’. The previous year, Salmond won a judicial review after a Scottish government investigation into the charges against him was found to have been ‘tainted with apparent bias’. Will Salmond see success with this current lawsuit? Stay tuned…
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