SCOTTISH Labour leader Anas Sarwar has suggested Nicola Sturgeon should resign if she is found to have breached the ministerial code on a “point of principle” and “respect” for the office of First Minister.
ON Friday, Alex Salmond claimed that he had “no doubt” Ms Sturgeon had broken the ministerial code over when she told Parliament about when she was first told of allegations against him.
But Mr Salmond, who was giving evidence to the Holyrood committee examining the Scottish Government’s unlawful and botched handling of complaints against him, said it was not for him to determine whether Ms Sturgeon should resign if she has broken the code.
READ MORE: Recap: Alex Salmond gives crunch evidence to Holyrood inquiry
The First Minister is subject to an independence investigation into whether she broke the code. She will give evidence to MSPs this week and has insisted she has not breached the code.
Mr Sarwar said: “If a minister is found to have breached the ministerial code, I think people would expect that minister to resign.
“That’s what Nicola Sturgeon would say if it was a Labour politician, Conservative politician and a Liberal Democrat politician.
“I think Nicola Sturgeon herself would say if an opposition politician was in government and they breached the ministerial code, they would be expected to resign.
“It’s a point of principle and respect of the office of first minister.“
During his evidence session on Friday, Mr Salmond also told MSPs that the Lord Advocate should “consider his position”, along with officials including permanent secretary Leslie Evans.
Mr Sarwar said there needs to be a re-think over the role of the Lord Advocate after the Crown Office intervened in censoring Mr Salmond’s evidence by raising fears it went against a court order.
He said: “It’s important to take the political parties out of this and take the personalities out of this and go straight to points of principle.
“The points of principle here are that two women were failed in terms of their complaints – how do we have a fair complaints policy her in Scotland? How do we respect the primacy of parliament? How do we respect and not have the misuse of public funds?
“I think we should be separating the role of the person that’s the legal adviser to the Scottish Government not being the person that also makes prosecutions for us in Scotland.”
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