Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 23 March 2021
We are here today because a former First Minister was accused of sexually harassing members of staff in a Government that he was there not only to lead but to serve. We are here because the hastily changed policy that was designed to protect staff from such actions was not fit for purpose and was implemented in an unfair and unlawful way. We are here because the Scottish Government, when subject to judicial review of the clusterboorach that had occurred, sought to frustrate the court, embarrassed its own lawyers and attempted to defend the indefensible, costing the taxpayer more than £0.5 million in the process. Nobody comes out of this well, apart from the original complainants and the external counsel to the Scottish Government, and nobody has taken responsibility for the multiple failings, at every level, that occurred.
Getting to today has been a process years in the making. Let us remember the promises that were made. We were told:
“I now intend—fully, as the First Minister—to respect the work of the various investigations that have been established.”
Those were the words of Nicola Sturgeon, spoken on 17 January 2019 from the place in which she is now sitting, and I took her at her word. A committee of the Scottish Parliament had been established to consider and report on the actions of the First Minister, Government officials and special advisers over the botched investigation. That committee would take evidence, deliberate and deliver a judgment. Indeed, the First Minister demanded of members of the Parliament the same high standards as she claimed for herself. She said:
“it strikes me that people cannot call for inquiries and then refuse to respect the work of those inquiries. I will respect the work of those inquiries; the question is, will others across the chamber?”—[Official Report, 17 January 2019; c 10, 11.]
That was a fundamental question to which at the time there seemed a pretty self-evident answer. What member of the Parliament would not respect and accept the verdict of a committee of the Parliament that had been established to investigate such serious matters? Now the verdict is in and we have our answer to that fundamental question, and those who have traduced the committee, who have rubbished its work, who have thrown mud at its members, who have made baseless claims regarding its outcomes and who have disrespected its conclusions—[Interruption.]