Former First Minister Alex Salmond has claimed SNP leadership hopeful Humza Yousaf skipped a vote on same sex marriage due to “religious pressure”.
Salmond said the Health Secretary had a “different recollection” amid claims Yousaf deliberately set up a diary clash to miss the vote.
Gay marriage has been key issue in the contest, with candidate Kate Forbes saying she would have voted against it in 2014.
Yousaf is also under scrutiny as he missed the final vote after arranging a meeting with the Pakistani Government.
Former MSP Alex Neil claimed Yousaf intentionally missed the vote and Salmond, who leads the Alba party, has also entered the row.
Appearing on Beth Rigby Interviews, Salmond said he was notified of Yousaf’s meeting “10 days or so before the vote”.
He said: “I’ve been very reluctant to get involved in this because it is an internal SNP leadership battle.
“I really don’t have a dog in this race, and anything I say, you know, people will say ‘he’s only saying that because he’s leader of Alba’.
“My memory is that I was contacted 10 days or so before the vote, when the vote was known, and told that Humza was arranging a ministerial appointment.”
Asked if Yousaf skipped the vote due to “religious pressure”, Salmond stated: “That’s my recollection.”
SNP MSPs Yousaf, Forbes and Ash Regan are the candidates in the race to succeed Sturgeon.
Yousaf said his non vote was being “dragged up” for political reasons by “people who are supporting other candidates”.
He said: “I believe that people’s marriage, if they are gay and they are married, that their marriage is no more inferior, or worth less, than my marriage as a heterosexual individual.”
Yousaf said he missed the vote over the case of a Scottish citizen on death row in Pakistan.
He claimed: “There was a series of meetings taking place between myself and the Pakistani government to get this individual back home. One of those meetings was during the stage three vote.
“Let me be unequivocal about it - if I was there I would have voted for it. That was well known at the time.”
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