It’s only days before the Holyrood election campaign gets underway and Nicola Sturgeon is facing one of the most testing weeks of her political career. Two verdicts are due in the coming days on whether the First Minister broke the ministerial code over the Alex Salmond inquiry.
One is the finding of Scottish parliament’s Alex Salmond committee which is due on Tuesday. The panel, which is made up of MSPs, is widely expected to say she did mislead parliament. Sturgeon and her allies will likely dismiss it as politically motivated. Already this line is being pushed out by the First Minister and SNP politicians.
Were Hamilton to find that Sturgeon knowingly misled parliament, it would be the worst case scenario for the First Minister
The verdict that will be harder to dismiss is the one Sturgeon is due to find out today from James Hamilton QC’s independent inquiry. Sturgeon has cited this inquiry as the one of substance, with Ireland’s former chief prosecutor set to decide whether she misled parliament or broke other conduct rules for ministers.
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