WATCH: Nicola Sturgeon's husband gives evidence to Salmond inquiry

The SNP's chief executive said his wife Nicola Sturgeon did not tell him about sexual harassment allegations involving former first minister Alex Salmond.

Peter Murrell said he arrived home during a meeting between Ms Sturgeon and her predecessor on April 2 2018, in which Mr Salmond made her aware of the claims.

Although Mr Murrell said he had a "sense" the meeting was about something serious, he told a Holyrood inquiry that Ms Sturgeon did not reveal what had been discussed.

Giving evidence to the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints on Tuesday, he said he only learned about the sexual harassment complaints when they became public and denied being involved in a plot against the former first minister.

Mr Murrell said: "When you're married to the First Minister, who is privy to lots of information, when she says she can't talk about something you don't continue to say 'ah, but' ... 'what about'...

"She's been a minister for a long time and works very hard every day, every weekend and when we get precious time together the last thing we want to be doing is re-running days with each other."

Mr Murrell, who has been SNP chief executive since 2000, said the first he heard about any potential misconduct by Mr Salmond was when Sky News inquired about an alleged incident involving Edinburgh Airport staff.

He said he and Ms Sturgeon "simultaneously" found out, adding: "All I can tell you is that - in all my years working with Alex across 30 years - the first time I saw anything of that nature being suggested was on November 4 2017.

"That is the truth."

Mr Murrell was also repeatedly questioned about whether the First Minister's meetings with Mr Salmond were on government business - and therefore should have been recorded - or were about party matters.

Asked about the apparent contradiction in their evidence, he said: I wasn't at home and I wasn't aware of the capacity in which she was having the meetings.

"Her impression of what the meeting was about altered when the discussion happened so it seemed a reasonable version of events that she set out in her written submission."

Mr Murrell said he regretted the "out of character" language he used in text messages sent to SNP's chief operating officer Sue Ruddick that suggested "pressurising" police.

The messages, sent the day after Mr Salmond had first appeared in court, said: "Totally agree folk should be asking the police questions.

"Report now with the PF Procurator Fiscal on charges which leaves police twiddling their thumbs.

"So good time to be pressuring them. Would be good to know Met looking at events in London."

A second message added: "Tbh the more fronts he is having to firefight the better for all complainers.

"So CPS action would be a good thing."

Mr Murrell told MSPs: "I can see the language that I used was open to misinterpretation. It wasn't about pressuring the police.

"There was a great deal of upset that day, I'd been working with Alex for 30 years at that point and I think we were all shocked by the scale of the charges that were being brought against him."

He then acknowledged that, when the text was sent on January 26 2019, he had "some awareness that CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) action was possible or pending" in relation to complaints about Mr Salmond from people in Westminster.

Mr Murrell was appearing before the Holyrood committee set up to investigate the Scottish Government's botched handling of harassment allegations against the former first minister.

Mr Salmond was awarded more than £500,000 after the Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled the way the complaints were dealt with was unlawful because of the investigating officer's prior contact with some of the women who went on to make complaints.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Conservatives claimed Mr Murrell's evidence has "sunk Nicola Sturgeon."

Scottish Tory MSP Murdo Fraser, a member of the committee, said: "The SNP chief executive has sunk Nicola Sturgeon.

"He has directly contradicted the First Minister and exposed her claim that it was party business to be utterly false.

"Peter Murrell's words indicate that Nicola Sturgeon misled Parliament, gave false evidence to the committee and broke the ministerial code.

"The SNP chief executive said today that the meetings with Alex Salmond were government not party business.

"That is the opposite of what Nicola Sturgeon claims."

He added: "The First Minister's ever-changing story has been dealt a fatal blow by her own chief executive and husband.

"His evidence has shattered her claims to pieces."

Scottish Labour deputy leader and committee member Jackie Baillie added: "Peter Murrell's appearance today demonstrated the lengths that the SNP will go to in order to prevent this committee from getting to the truth.

"Nicola Sturgeon claims her meeting with Alex Salmond was as SNP leader but Peter Murrell has contradicted her previously and said it was in her capacity as First Minister that she met him. Both can't be right.

"If Peter Murrell, as chief executive of the SNP, was not aware of the nature of the meeting in his own home, then I am astonished.

"However, more serious would be if the First Minister was breaching the ministerial code and discussing details of the Government's investigation to Alex Salmond."

She added: "Mr Murrell squirmed when confronted with his own words in his text messages, messages that concerned events about the Crown Prosecution Service in England, that were not disclosed publicly until months later.

"It's all too clear that the boundaries between party and government and what is personal and professional have been eroded.

"The taxpayer has been made to foot the bill for a botched investigation that failed the complainers and looks like it was driven by a dangerous cocktail of vendetta and incompetence."

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton commented: "The suggestion that Nicola Sturgeon gave her husband no warning of the what was potentially the biggest threat to their party in its history, and a head start on bracing the party for impact, is wholly implausible.

"She was worried that Salmond was about to resign from the party at the April 2 meeting, she attended as much in her capacity as leader of the party.

"Normal practice would have seen her ringing alarm bells within the party high command.

"Mr Murrell's appearance undermines both of their accounts as to Nicola Sturgeon's role in all of this."