Alex Salmond saga 'a crisis of credibility' for Holyrood

Holyrood faces a "crisis of credibility" over its inquiry into the handling of harassment complaints against Alex Salmond, opposition leaders have claimed.

Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the saga had become "sad for parliament and for Scotland".

And he said the Lord Advocate must explain why he wanted written evidence from Mr Salmond to be redacted.

Labour made the same demand, saying the parliament's credibility was at stake.

And Mr Salmond said in a statement that his lawyers would be writing to the Lord Advocate to ask for an explanation for the Crown Office's "unprecedented and highly irregular actions".

Mr Salmond said he had also instructed his lawyers to request specifically that the Crown "preserve and retain all material and communications with all or any third parties which led to their decision to intervene at the very last minute just as he was set to give his evidence."

The row centres on a paper submitted to the inquiry by Mr Salmond - which accuses First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of misleading parliament - which was posted on the parliament's website on Monday.

It came after MSPs on Holyrood's corporate body decided after taking legal advice that it could be published.

But the corporate body agreed on Tuesday morning to remove and revise the document after receiving a letter from the Crown Office which expressed "grave concerns".

The Crown Office later said it had taken action because of issues of potential contempt of court.

Mr Salmond subsequently pulled out of his scheduled appearance at the inquiry, which had been due to be held on Wednesday afternoon - but has said he may be willing to appear on Friday instead.

The inquiry has been hit by severe delays since it started its work, with opposition MSPs accusing both the Scottish government and Mr Salmond of attempting to frustrate it and avoid scrutiny.

Speaking to the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme, Mr Ross said "of course" parliament was facing a crisis of credibility.

He said: "This sleaze and scandal within the SNP has now undermined everything that's going on in Holyrood and the nationalists are clearly treating parliament and the Scottish people with contempt".

Mr Ross added: "The corporate body agreed as a whole to take this decision, but we would like to see public scrutiny of that.

"We would like the Lord Advocate to come to parliament to explain what he requested and why he requested it 24 hours after the evidence had been published on the Scottish Parliament website".

The Lord Advocate, James Wolffe QC, was appointed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and is both the head of the Crown Office and the Scottish government's chief legal advisor.

Separate documents submitted to the inquiry by Mr Salmond accuse the Crown Office of being unfit for purpose under its current leadership, and have accused it of being too close to both the Scottish government and the SNP.

And Mr Salmond alleged that there was "a deliberate, prolonged, malicious and concerted effort amongst a range of individuals within the Scottish government and the SNP to damage my reputation, even to the extent of having me imprisoned."

Mr Ross claimed that as the Lord Advocate was a member of the Scottish government there could be a possible conflict of interest in his involvement.

He said the law officer had previously appeared before parliament over the malicious prosecution of two former Rangers directors.

And he asked: "Why can't he come to the Scottish Parliament to outline why he felt that evidence had to be taken down from the Scottish Parliament website after it had previously been cleared?"

Mr Ross went on to say that the establishment of the devolved parliament in 1999 was supposed to have ushered in a "new politics" where things were done better than elsewhere.

But he added: "22 years later, how depressing is it that we are in the situation that sleaze at the heart of the Scottish government is undermining everything we do in the parliament itself?"

Scottish Labour has also called for Mr Wolffe to appear before parliament to answer questions over the document being redacted.

The party's interim leader, Jackie Baillie, said: "The credibility of the inquiry into the Scottish government's handling of harassment complaints, and indeed the credibility of the entire parliament, hangs in the balance.

"The Crown Office's unprecedented intervention yesterday demands explanation - we cannot have this parliament cowed into submission by the will of the Crown Office.

"The Lord Advocate must appear before the parliament to explain the actions of the Crown Office immediately."

The Crown Office has been contacted for a response.

Ms Sturgeon, who is currently due to give evidence to the inquiry next week, has previously denied there was a conspiracy against Mr Salmond, saying he had made claims "without a shred of evidence".

She has also denied that she breached the ministerial code or that her government has attempted to obstruct the inquiry, and has said that she is "relishing" the prospect of giving evidence in person.

The first minister told BBC Scotland earlier this week: "This is a situation where I and others were faced with a really difficult scenario - allegations against someone I had been very close to.

"I dealt with that to the best of my ability and I think I made the right judgements overall."

The inquiry committee has been examining what went wrong with the government's internal investigation into sexual harassment complaints against Mr Salmond that were made by two female civil servants.

The government had to pay legal expenses of more than £500,000 to Mr Salmond after it admitted it had acted unlawfully during the investigation.

Mr Salmond was later cleared of 13 charges of sexual assault against a total of nine women after a High Court trial last year.