Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 23 March 2021
James Hamilton’s independent investigation has finally reported. It has unambiguously cleared the First Minister of all charges that she breached the ministerial code. Those very accusations were, of course, what today’s flimsy motion of no confidence was seemingly built on, and, judging by what I have heard so far, they are the dead horse that the Tories look determined to flog.
It is worth collectively reminding ourselves that the whole unhappy story is not ultimately about politics. It is not about the conspiracy theories that gripped the political and media worlds and that, at one fevered point, encompassed everyone in Scotland from the First Minister to SNP staff, the complainants, the civil service, prosecutors and even, improbably enough, the Lord Advocate. In case we forget, it is, ultimately, the much simpler and sadder story of two women—two real human beings—who made complaints. The Scottish Government’s complaints procedures, as we all now know, completely failed. So, too, it gives me no pleasure to say, did some of the officials who were tasked with operating those procedures.
For my many sins, I have served for the past two years on Parliament’s committee of inquiry into the handling of those complaints. Like a number of other committee members, I decided many months ago not to give a breathless running commentary to the media about our evidence and private deliberations. To say that our committee leaked like the Titanic would be to do a considerable injustice to Harland and Wolff: the Titanic leaked only once.
I can genuinely say that the low point in my 14 years in this place was when I found out that someone on our committee had gone so far as to leak sensitive material purporting to be the accounts of the two women—accounts that had, in fact, not been authorised by them for release. That was in flagrant breach of every assurance that the women had been given about the trust that they could place in us.
Some have said that such behaviour represents a challenge to the credibility of the Parliament. Like Patrick Harvie, I profoundly disagree with that assessment. I think that it is simply a challenge to the credibility of some members. I am afraid, however, that it speaks to the deep reserves of disfiguring political hatred that some people in this place apparently have for the First Minister—a hatred born, no doubt, of long political frustration, which brings them to their no confidence motion today.
There were, of course, many things in the committee’s report on which we all agreed, and I hope that those findings will be useful in preventing people from being failed again in the future. The unevidenced insinuations about the First Minister that were tacked on to the end of our report in the last day or two of our meetings do not, I am afraid, fall into that category.
In any case, Mr Hamilton’s report demolishes the very basis for today’s motion. The idea that the ministerial code was breached through failure to record meetings and the allegations that the First Minister may have attempted to influence the conduct of the investigation, misled Parliament or failed to comply with the law are all rejected.
As this parliamentary session draws to a close and the motion runs into the sand, what are Opposition members left with—their loathing aside? They are left facing an election that, it seems, they have decided to make all about character. After this week, I wish them good luck with that one.
15:46