David Davis on Alex Salmond, and how 'even in death he'll deliver a more powerful Scottish parliament'
A senior Tory who was a close political friend of Alex Salmond has vowed to fight for tougher powers for the Scottish Parliament in his name. Before he died on Saturday, Mr Salmond was in the process of suing the Scottish government over a botched investigation into harassment complaints, a legal case that his friend and Conservative MP David Davis claimed would vindicate him.
Speaking to The Scotsman, Sir David said it was a "tragedy" Mr Salmond had not lived to see a victory in the legal battle, and claimed more powers for Holyrood would mean MSPs and witnesses were compelled to tell the truth about the matter, and feel safe to do so.
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Hide AdHe said: “Way back when, when he won his two court cases, he won his judicial review against the Government on their management of the sexual harassment complaint, and he won his criminal court case. It was quite apparent that quite a lot had gone on but we couldn’t find anything out.
“So at that point I suggested that Holyrood look at it. Holyrood needs to have the same powers in this respect as the Westminster parliament. Namely privilege, protection from lawsuits but also from prosecution. I have done things in the past relating to security issues and torture, which would have attracted contempt of court charge for exposing things that were tried in-camera (closed court). I took the view it was not appropriate, and they were tried in-camera to avoid embarrassment, not for security reasons.
“Firstly, we need to give Holyrood the powers to actually speak freely, criticize freely and to summon people to speak. People either refuse to turn up or show up in certain conditions.
“Second there should be a duty of candour for the state. Thirdly, specific to Scotland, you’ve got to have separation of powers so that the prosecution arm of the judiciary does not report to a cabinet member.”
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In November last year, Salmond lodged a Court of Session petition seeking a reported £3m in damages and loss of earnings. He had already been paid more than £500,000 in costs by the Scottish government over the mishandling of harassment complaints against him.
The former First Minister was also cleared of sexual assault charges at a subsequent criminal trial.
Predicting a win for Mr Salmond, he added: “It’s a tragedy, I would have loved to have been there when Alex punched the air after defeating the government, no doubt being given a reward of several million pounds. I will do this in Alex Salmond’s name, I will make sure this happens.
“The history books when they’re written, and that’s what people like Alex care about, will say he was an architect of independence, a strong advocate of devolution, and even in death, delivers a more powerful parliament.”
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Hide AdThe free speech protections called for by Mr Davis were in Scottish Labour’s manifesto, and would see Holyrood have the same protections as Westminster.
Sir David continued: “If we do all that, it will be possible to expose a great deal of what this court case is about. I’m not in this court case, but the thing that it’s challenging, who knew what when, that will be capable of being exposed.
“If the death of Alex Salmond means anything, they should resolve this matter now.
“The whole thing central to this episode forced him out, and that caused him great pain.
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Hide Ad“The Labour government needs to start implementing its promises straight away, and I think there’s a reasonable chance that it will. That all relates to the reinforcing of democracy. If they do that, everyone else will follow naturally. The court case will resolve quite quickly, the facts will come into the public domain, that will be good for his family, I can’t imagine the stress on them, and Scotland will gain from it.
“Having a Government that has to tell the truth, has to operate in the public domain, that’s what democracy is about. It will be a fabulous memorial to Alex if out of this we see a better Government for Scotland.”
Paying tribute to his friend, Sir David also revealed he may now rename a planned lecture after the former Alba leader.
He said: “What Alex and I had intended, was I would give a lecture in Edinburgh in the next month or two, really on this constitutional issue, in order to get it into the public domain. I am still going to do that. I may even call it the Alex Salmond lecture.”
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Hide AdEarlier on Monday the acting leader of the Alba party, Kenny MacAskill, expressed hopes the legal case against the Scottish Government would continue.
He said: "My own position is that I will respect whatever the family decide.
"But I would certainly hope and I believe that they are likely to continue this, because that court case will expose, I believe, malfeasance amongst individuals and institutions that really has to be brought out to allow history to properly remember Alex Salmond." A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on live litigation.”
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