Scots are used to tumult and unpredictability in their politics but this morning they are waking up to something of a different order. Former first minister Alex Salmond has been reported to police following allegations of sexual assault by two female staff members, according to the Daily Record. One of the alleged incidents, the paper claims, took place in Bute House, the official residence of the first minister of Scotland and now home to Nicola Sturgeon. The complaints were reportedly uncovered by an internal Scottish Government investigation and handed to Police Scotland.
Salmond denies all allegations against him and, what’s more, is now taking his own former government to court. In a statement issued on Thursday night, the former SNP leader revealed he had been in dispute with Leslie Evans, the permanent secretary to the Scottish Government, over the conduct of the internal investigation. Salmond accuses her of acting ‘unlawfully’ in the course of the process.
Salmond, who lost his seat to the Tories in the 2017 election and now hosts a self-titled show on Russia Today, announced he was seeking a judicial review at the Court of Session, the highest civil court in Scotland. In his statement, he said:
‘For many months now, and on the advice of senior counsel, I have attempted to persuade the permanent secretary to the Scottish Government that she is behaving unlawfully in the application of a complaints procedure, introduced by her more than three years after I left office.
‘This is a procedure so unjust that even now I have not been allowed to see and therefore to properly challenge the case against me.
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