Alex Salmond inquiry news live: Latest SNP updates as civil war heats up

Doorstep campaigning will be able to resume from 8 March in the run up to May’s local elections, the government has said, but only if coronavirus rules are obeyed.

Guidance published on Friday means individual activists will be able to campaign outdoors in the run-up to the polls in England, while campaigners will be able to deliver leaflets and talk to voters on their doorsteps, but must remain at a distance of two metres away and not enter their homes.

Ministers will relax the current ban under the third national lockdown so two months of in-person campaigning can take place ahead of voting on 6 May.

Constitution minister Chloe Smith said: “Democracy should not be cancelled because of Covid. Voters appreciate being well-informed and campaigning is an important part of effective elections.

“I urge political campaigners to continue to show social responsibility, and for parties, agents and candidates to ensure that their campaigners understand the clear rules.”

All campaigners will be encouraged to wear masks and to wash their hands more regularly.

Here is a roundup of the evidence Alex Salmond gave to the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints today:

The former first minister was asked if he wanted to say “sorry” for behaviours he had previously admitted – with Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton saying some of these were “appalling”.

But Mr Salmond said he was “resting” on the verdicts of two courts cases – the Court of Session finding the Scottish government’s handling of complaints against him to be illegal and the criminal case at the High Court in Edinburgh at which he was cleared of 13 charges of sexual assault.

He added the “government’s illegality has had huge consequences for a number of people”.

Identity of one of the complainers

Mr Salmond said the identity of one of the women who made complaints was revealed to his former chief of staff, Geoff Aberdein.

Labour’s Jackie Baillie, who raised this issue with the current first minister in Holyrood on Thursday, asked if the name of one of the complainers had been shared at a meeting Mr Aberdein had been at.

Mr Salmond, giving evidence under oath, said: “My former chief of staff told me that.”

Evidence of ‘suppression’ claims

Mr Salmond believes there has been a “calculated and deliberate suppression of key evidence” to the committee, saying it had been “systematically deprived of the evidence it has legitimately sought”.

He went on to state there was a “pattern of non-disclosure” that “goes right through the judicial review, right through the criminal case and right into this committee”.

“It’s not the odd document that’s been missed out, it is a sequence of deliberate suppression of information inconvenient to the government,” he said.

Mr Salmond claimed the “failures of leadership are many and obvious” in the case – but complained no-one had “taken responsibility”, with no resignations or sackings.

“The government acted illegally but somehow nobody is to blame,” he told MSPs.

Mr Salmond stated: “Scotland hasn’t failed, its leadership has failed. The importance of this inquiry is for each and everyone of us to help put this right.”

No cover up by his successor Nicola Sturgeon

The former first minister was asked if, prior to November 2017, Nicola Sturgeon had raised questions or concerns with him about sexually inappropriate behaviour.

Mr Salmond said: “I have got points to make about what I believe the current first minister has done or not done, and they will be made in response to relevant questions, relevant to the committee.

“But I’ve seen it pursued on the committee that somehow Nicola Sturgeon was covering up something, that is not the case.”

Nicola Sturgeon’s call for evidence

Mr Salmond said: “I note that the first minister asserts I have to prove a case, I don’t. That has already been done. There have been two court cases, two judges, one jury.”

But he said Ms Sturgeon was aware of complaints against him in March – not April as she has previously told the Scottish Parliament.

The first minister has said she first learned of the allegations when Mr Salmond came to her home on 2 April but Mr Salmond said: “I know that she knew on 29 March”.

Mr Salmond called for the Lord Advocate and the head of Scotland’s civil service, permanent secretary Leslie Evans, to resign over the handling of the complaints against him.

But while he said he had “no doubt” Nicola Sturgeon has broken rules governing the behaviour of ministers, he stopped short saying she should resign.

“I have no doubt that Nicola broke the ministerial code but it’s not for me to suggest what the consequence should be,” he said.

Additional reporting by PA

Teachers have been left “disappointed” and police “scared and betrayed” after finding out the vaccination against coronavirus of people under 50 would be prioritised by age rather than profession.

Education unions and leaders warned of the potential for disruption to learning when all students are allowed back on 8 March due to the risk of staff absences.

Meanwhile, the chair of the Police Federation attacked the move as a “contemptible betrayal” of officers.

It comes after it was revealed today that people aged 40 to 49 will be prioritised next for a Covid-19 vaccine, then those in their 30s, and then 18- to 29-year-olds.

My colleague, Zoe Tidman, reports:

Alex Salmond was asked if, as a former first minister, he would have notified the civil service if he had been approached by a political colleague as he had done with Nicola Sturgeon on 2 April 2018.

“In the circumstances that were there, I would have gone to the permanent secretary,” he said.

“And that is obviously what I was urging, or asking, Nicola to do, or seriously consider. I was obviously disappointed that she couldn’t see that was the way forward.

“I wouldn’t have asked her to do it if I didn’t believe it was totally legitimate. You can see from the WhatsApp messages that I tried to argue this was the legitimate thing to do.”

Alex Salmond has called on senior members of the Scottish government and the SNP, including Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, to resign over allegations they conspired against him.

Our Whitehall editor, Kate Devlin, reports:

Northern Ireland’s DUP agriculture minister Gordon Lyons has said he has ordered his officials to halt construction of permanent inspection facilities for post-Brexit checks on agri-food goods arriving from Great Britain.

Mr Lyons told the PA news agency he has also ordered a halt of further recruitment of inspection staff for the port facilities and ordered an end to charges levied at the ports on traders bringing goods from GB into Northern Ireland.

Follow my colleague, Jon Sharman, as he reports:

Alex Salmond has claimed Nicola Sturgeon knew about a complaints procedure launched against him before meeting with her in her home.

He said: “Whether she had any prior knowledge of it I cannot say, but I know that she knew on 29 March.

“The meeting on 29 March was not impromptu, was not accidental, was not popping your head around the door.

“It was a meeting arranged for that purpose and the meeting on 2 April was not popping into Nicola and Peter’s home, it was a meeting arranged for that purpose.”

Our Whitehall editor, Kate Devlin, reports:

Mr Salmond also alleged there had been “obstruction of justice” as he said Scottish government documents had been improperly withheld from the courts.

He also said that if Ms Sturgeon had been aware that her government was about to lose its case against him, and had proceeded anyway, that would mean the first minister had breached the ministerial code.

The legal advice received by the Scottish Government has not been published.

Independent MSP Andy Wightman asked former first minister Alex Salmond what grounds for judicial review he was advised would have the highest chance of success.

Mr Salmond said “procedural unfairness” was among them, adding: “One of the strongest arguments, and I’m not competent to judge the strongest argument, but certainly as put to me one of the strongest arguments was the nature of the investigating officer.

“I’m not talking here about the prior involvement that was subsequently discovered, but the nature of how the investigating officer conducts his or her activities.

“It means that in this procedure – totally different from fairness at work and totally different from elsewhere – the investigating officer basically presents the case for the prosecution before the defendant is even informed about the procedure.

“And then the person who is being complained about, instead of being able to present their own case, has to give that case to the same person, to the investigating officer, to present on his or her behalf.

“And that, my legal team told me, is not something that the courts take kindly to.”

Alex Salmond has criticised Leslie Evans, the permanent secretary and Scotland’s most senior civil servant, for her role in the handling of harassment allegations against him.

“People make mistakes, in terms of the civil service, just like anybody else, government ministers, politicians. It happens all the time. But in terms of the Richter scale of mistakes, this is right up there, this is a very big one,” Mr Salmond said.

The former first minister argued that “you would have hoped, believed, that someone would have accepted responsibility” for this.

He added: “When I walked out of the Court of Session in 8 January 2018, I didn’t say ‘Leslie Evans should now resign’, I did the normal language that perhaps the permanent secretary should now consider her position.

“I did that because I knew she had claimed ownership over this policy, she said in a letter to my lawyers ‘it was a policy established by me’. That was her words.

“I thought therefore she had responsibility for the policy, for not conceding timeously in the judicial review and for a range of other things that could have been done. But somebody has to accept responsibility for a calamitous occurrence and defeat.”