Nicola Sturgeon has told an inquiry any suggestion she “acted with malice” or “plotted” against her predecessor Alex Salmond is “absurd”.

Addressing a Scottish Parliament hearing in Edinburgh this morning, the first minister said she acted “properly and appropriately” in the handling of harassment claims against her predecessor.

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She said she was “relieved” to be finally giving evidence to the committee, but said: “I feel I must rebut the absurd suggestion that anyone acted with malice or plotted against Alex Salmond.”

Ms Sturgeon said she cared for Mr Salmond “for a long time” and that the situation has been one of the “most invidious” of her life.

But she added that although he was cleared in a criminal trial, Mr Salmond’s behaviour against women was “not always appropriate” and she “tried to do the right thing”.

“A number of women made serious complaints against him,” she said.

“I have searched my soul many times on all of this. It may very well be that I didn’t get everything right, that’s for others to judge.

“But in one of the most invidious political and personal situations I have ever faced, I believe I acted properly and appropriately, and overall, I made the best judgments I could.”

Ms Sturgeon is accused of breaking the ministerial code by failing to report the meeting she had with Mr Salmond on 2 April 2018 when he told her about the harassment claims against him.

She said that the meeting at her home in Glasgow was “firmly in the personal and party space” and that if she did declare it, she would have been “breaching the confidentiality of the process”.

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