Cameron heaps pressure on Sturgeon

PRESSURE was mounting on Nicola Sturgeon last night after David Cameron said she had "serious questions" to answer over her decision to write a character reference for a serial fraudster.

• Nicola Sturgeon is facing "serious questions"

The Conservative leader said the deputy first minister had crossed a line by writing to a court to suggest a constituent with two fraud convictions should not be sent to jail.

His intervention came as a senior SNP figure appeared to suggest Sturgeon had made a mistake by writing in support of Abdul Rauf.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She has come in for severe criticism after it emerged last week she had written to Glasgow Sheriff Court on behalf of Rauf, who is waiting to be sentenced for defrauding 80,000 in benefits from the Department of Work and Pensions.

The deputy first minister wrote on his behalf even though she knew he had been jailed in the 1990s for stealing 58,624 in pension and benefits payments while a sub-postmaster in Edinburgh.

Cameron acknowledged that politicians sometimes had to deal with difficult constituency cases, but he said: "I wouldn't have written that letter, and I think she has got some serious questions to answer.

"It is right, though, that members of parliament are called upon to take up cases sometimes with people that you profoundly disagree with, and you have to do that. I remember taking up the case of someone who was imprisoned overseas – of course you have to take up these cases, but I think you have to be careful in what you say and how far you go.

"I think in advising that there should not be a custodial sentence, that does seem to me to cross a line, so having read the letter that she sent, I must say there are parts of it where I just think she has some very big questions to answer."

The official line from the SNP has been that Sturgeon acted "entirely properly and appropriately". First Minister Alex Salmond has said he backs her "110 per cent" and has argued that MSPs have a duty and obligation to act for constituents.

But last night John Mason, the SNP MP for Glasgow East, appeared to concede it had been unwise for Sturgeon to refer to Rauf's most recent crime as a "mistake" in her letter. He said: "Everyone who deals with these things deals with them slightly differently … I think she used the word 'mistake' and other people would use a different word. It is a balance – it is a judgment thing."

Mason then appeared to concede Sturgeon's letter had been a mistake in itself, although later he tried to deny that was what he meant. "We set people up as being wonderful people and then they make mistakes," he said. "We all make mistakes and we just can't have a society where every time somebody makes a mistake, their head gets chopped off."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Labour has renewed its calls for Sturgeon's resignation from the Cabinet, and has repeatedly urged the SNP to disclose any connections that Rauf had with the Nationalists. The SNP has denied any such links.

In response to Cameron's criticism, an SNP spokeswoman said:

"It is entirely appropriate and proper for Nicola Sturgeon to represent a constituent when asked to do so, as every MSP should have a duty of care to try to help their constituents."