The SNP’s former Dear Leader Nicola Sturgeon released her memoir this week – but it has not quite had the reception she anticipated. The trailed excerpts prompted Alex Salmond’s allies to accuse Sturgeon of besmirching her former mentor’s name, brought her failed gender reform bill to the fore and confused pro-independence supporters after the Queen of the Nats hinted she was considering a move to, er, London. Now another admission in the 450-page tome has led the Scottish Tories to write to the Scottish Permanent Secretary to examine whether Sturgeon broke the ministerial code.
Craig Hoy posted his letter to Joe Griffin on Twitter today, fuming that Sturgeon’s memoir had revealed the former first minister had ‘wasted taxpayers’ money on a doomed court case for party political reasons’. In his letter, Hoy stresses:
In the book, the former first minister stated that the Scottish government’s reference to the Supreme Court on whether it had the power to hold an independence referendum unilaterally was ‘in all likelihood impossible’ to succeed.
The Scottish ministerial code states that ministers and officials should ‘ensure that their decisions are informed by appropriate analysis of the legal considerations and that the legal implications of any course of action are considered at the earliest opportunity’. If the then-first minister has now publicly admitted that she thought it was ‘impossible’ for this court reference to succeed, yet proceeded with it anyway, this constitutes a clear failure to follow the legal implications of her chosen course of action at the earliest opportunity.
Nicola Sturgeon suggested that the reason she proceeded with the reference was because she was ‘in a bind’ with her party members and supporters. The Supreme Court reference ended up costing taxpayers a quarter of a million pounds. This political use of public money is in clear violation of paragraph 1.4(i) of the ministerial code which states: ‘Ministers must not use public resources for party political purposes;’.
He went on:
Nicola Sturgeon is no longer first minister, so action can no longer be taken against her under the ministerial code, but could you as Permanent Secretary confirm whether you believe this spending complied with the requirements laid out in the code, given Ms Sturgeon’s recent comments? If not, will the Scottish government be taking any action to recover the public funds that were spent at the direction of Nicola Sturgeon for what were clearly party political purposes?
Good heavens! Has Sturgeon landed herself in hot water over this rather revealing confession? Stay tuned…
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