NICOLA STURGEON has used her new book to suggest that Alex Salmond himself may have leaked details about the Scottish government probe into claims of sexual misconduct against him.

Scotland’s former first minister made the claims in her new memoir, Frankly, four years after she told a Holyrood committee investigating claims of a conspiracy against her predecessor more than 50 times that she could not recall key events in the affair.

In an excerpt published in the Times, she suggests the information leaked from the investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct could have come from Mr SalmoFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon with Alex Salmond whilst on the General Election campaign trail in Inverurie in the Gordon constituency, April 18, 2015nd himself; the leak prompted him to seek a judicial review into the process, which the Scottish government did not defend.

She said: “It crossed my mind many times that it might have been Alex himself or someone acting on his behalf. I know this will sound preposterous. However, in many ways it would have been classic Alex.”

On the allegations themselves, which led to a 2020 criminal trial in which Mr Salmond was cleared, Ms Sturgeon said: “The ‘conspiracy’ was a fabrication, the invention of a man who wasn’t prepared to reflect honestly on his own conduct.”