Nicola Sturgeon aims jibes at Alex Salmond over Holyrood Inquiry as she dodges questions on resignation

Sturgeon is the focus of an investigation over whether she misled the Scottish Parliament on when she knew about allegations of harassment made against her predecessor Alex Salmond.Sturgeon said she first learned of the complaints in a meeting with Salmond at her home in early April 2018, but it later emerged she had been told by his former chief of staff in her Holyrood office a few days prior, a fact she claims to have forgotten.The First Minister has referred herself for investigation by

Our Politics newsletter is now daily.

a bombshell opening statement to the Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish Government’s unlawful investigation of sexual harassment claims against him, Salmond accused his successor Sturgeon of using a Covid press conference to “effectively question the result of a jury”.Read Salmond's full opening statement to MSPs below“Three important points require to be made at the outset. Firstly, this inquiry is not about me," he told MSPs.

the cross-party inquiry this afternoon, with the session expected to last around four hours.

latest plan to ease restrictions yesterday but it was criticised for not looking beyond the end of April.The UK Government's routemap out of lockdown for England claimed all social restrictions could end as early as June 21.But Sturgeon said she would be “making it up” if she gave a specific date for the end of coronavirus restrictions.Speaking at the coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh on Wednesday, the SNP leader questioned Johnson's June 21 date.“If I was to give you a fixed, hard and fast date

could be back in class by March 15 with high schools fully open by April 5.But opposition MSPs and business leaders criticised today's document for lacking detail.Speaking to MSPs, Sturgeon said lockdown would ease in phases - separated by intervals of at least three weeks - culminating in the removal of the stay at home order on April 5.Scotland will move back to a regional system of restrictions by the end of that month.The rest of primary school years, as well as more senior phase pupils in

Crown Office. A Scottish Parliament spokesperson said: “Following representations from the Crown Office on Monday evening, the SPCB agreed collectively this morning that it will remove the Alex Salmond submission on the Ministerial Code from its website with immediate effect and republish it later today in a redacted form.

First Minister, was released after a decision by the parliament’s governing body.It came after an eleventh hour plea by Rape Crisis Scotland not to publish the Salmond submission, which the charity believes could breach a court order.Women who work at Holyrood also mounted a social media campaign for the material not to be put in the public domain.This is a breaking news story - we'll bring you updates, pictures and video as it happens.For the latest news and breaking news visit

"route map" is published.

First Minister left a four nations call with the Prime Minister and the leaders of the other devolved administrations to take part in her regular coronavirus broadcast today.With the call between the leaders coming as plans for the easing of lockdown restrictions are being unveiled, the Scottish Tories accused the First Minister of having the wrong priority.A Conservative spokesman said: “It will raise more than a few eyebrows that Nicola Sturgeon’s priority is the BBC briefing over working

Salmond’s submission to the Holyrood Inquiry.A Committee Inquiry is investigating the SNP Government’s mishandling of sexual misconduct complaints against Salmond when he was First Minister.Salmond took the Government to court and it was accepted the internal probe, which destroyed his friendship with Nicola Sturgeon, had been unlawful.Separately, he was acquitted of sexual offences after a trial last year.Salmond’s allies believe Government and SNP figures tried to plot his downfall.The Inquiry

“We must hear Alex Salmond’s side of the story to uncover what really happened. This welcome decision makes that possible.”A Scottish Parliament spokesperson said: “The Committee notes the decision of the SPCB.

Salmond.Sturgeon was due to face questions in person on Tuesday next week on her role in the Scottish Government's botched probe into allegations of misconduct against her predecessor.However, the committee members wanted to hear from Salmond first but were unable to get him to agree to appear last week because of the legal wrangle.A Scottish Parliament spokesperson confirmed this afternoon: “At its meeting today, the committee was united in its desire to complete this inquiry in an open and

Scottish Government’s botched handling of sexual harassment complaints against him on Tuesday, but he declined to do so after it failed to publish evidence he submitted.The committee voted not to publish the submission or a redacted version of it, citing legal concerns over orders to protect the anonymity of complainers.But a judge has now amended a court order which prevents the publication of information likely to identify any of the accusers in the Salmond trial to clarify its scope.The

Jeane Freeman said Scotland should hit its target of vaccinating 400,000 adults a week ahead of schedule this week - but added the programme will then “need to scale back a bit”.A drop in supply across all four UK nations is being caused by work being carried out by Pfizer – the manufacturer of one of the approved vaccines.The company is having to temporarily reduce output as part of an overall effort to increase manufacturing capacity amid worldwide demand for vaccines.Nicola Sturgeon said on

Our Politics newsletter is now daily.

First Minister met with her Scottish Government Cabinet this morning where it was agreed that children in primaries one, two and three should provisionally return to class from the week beginning Monday, February 22. Pre-school nurseries would also reopen at the same time as part of a gradual reopening of the wider schools system.

Nicola Sturgeon said restrictions “are working” as infection levels dip, but in a statement at the Scottish Parliament warned the pandemic is still not under enough control. Sturgeon said: “The current lockdown, including the stay at home except for essential purposes requirement, needs to remain in place until at least the end of February.” Alarm at the spread of mutated covid-19 has forced the whole of the UK to cope with serious restrictions covering all aspects of daily life.