Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has joined calls for donations to a women’s abuse charity as her predecessor Alex Salmond faced a backlash over his crowdfunding appeal to fund his legal challenge against the SNP government.
Mr Salmond issued the funding plea for his judicial review court action as he resigned from the SNP amid sexual conduct allegations dating from his time as first minister.
His crowdfunding appeal total had hit more than £76,500 (€85,000) by midday yesterday – beating the £50,000 target.
But Mr Salmond, who quit the SNP on Wednesday night, faced a backlash over the call for financial help. It was accompanied by the online hashtag #forFairness.
Several female politicians attacked the move and called for people to instead donate money to the charity Women’s Aid, which supports those who have suffered abuse.
In the latest sign of tensions with Mr Salmond, Ms Sturgeon then tweeted her support for a Women’s Aid fundraising drive for a legal challenge to the so-called ‘rape clause’.
Questions were also raised about why Mr Salmond, who has five pensions and hosts a TV show on ‘Russia Today’ needed the money to fight his court battle.
Jackie Baillie, a senior Labour MSP, said on Twitter that Mr Salmond’s crowdfunding drive was a “disgrace” and “about distracting attention from allegations of harassment”.
A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: “Scotland now faces the unprecedented situation of its most famous former first minister appealing to SNP supporters for cash to take legal action against the government he used to run.”
However, the former SNP leader’s crowdfunding page was inundated with messages of support from his fellow nationalists. Jim Sillars, the SNP’s former deputy leader, said: “Alex doesn’t have inherited wealth or anything like that and I think a large number of people will contribute to the cause of the judicial review. It is a perfectly legitimate thing for him to engage in.”
The row broke out after Mr Salmond resigned from the SNP, which he led for 20 years, amid growing pressure on Ms Sturgeon to suspend him and to prevent the party descending into civil war. He said he intended to reapply for party membership “just as soon as I have had the opportunity to clear my name”.
The complaints, which Mr Salmond denies, have been handed to Police Scotland following an inquiry led by Leslie Evans, the Scottish Government’s most senior mandarin.
According to the ‘Daily Record’, one incident happened after an official engagement in December 2013, when Mr Salmond is alleged to have told a female member of staff to go to a bedroom in Bute House, the first minister’s official residence in Edinburgh.
The woman claims he touched her breasts and bottom through her clothes and only stopped after she repeatedly asked him to. Mr Salmond has insisted he has never engaged in any “criminality”.
He is seeking judicial review of the Scottish Government’s new complaints procedure that was introduced in December and approved by Ms Sturgeon. The complaints against Mr Salmond were made a month later.
Mike Russell, the SNP’s Brexit minister and a friend of Mr Salmond for more than 30 years, urged him to accept the Scottish Government’s complaints process. He told BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Good Morning Scotland’ programme: “There are clearly allegations that have to be responded to.
“The only thing that will conclude this will be the facts. But I am very sad and I do hope we see him back.”