The First Minister has cleared Humza Yousaf of breaking the ministerial code during the SNP leadership contest.
The Health Secretary, who hopes to succeed Nicola Sturgeon next week as the party chief, was accused of breaking official rules by accessing government material to support his Bute House ambitions and rubbish his rival Ash Regan.
A complaint was submitted this week to the Scottish Government’s Permanent Secretary after Yousaf claimed during a live TV debate that he had checked government documents.
But he told investigators it was just a turn of phrase, and was cleared by Sturgeon three days after the complaint was made.
During Tuesday night’s BBC debate, Yousaf was asked by Regan about voting against amendments to the Gender Recognition Reform bill, which she said would have stopped the legislation from collapsing.
In response, Yousaf said: “First and foremost, Ash was, of course, my junior minister when I was Justice Secretary…
“I’ve looked through the records and I can’t find any record of you ever raising this issue with me.”
A complaint called on the Permanent Secretary John Paul Marks to investigate whether Yousaf had accessed or kept documents after leaving his role as Justice secretary or whether he had asked any civil servants or special advisers to check the information for him to further his party-political campaign.
Doing so could have breached the ministerial code which states “ministers must not use public resources for party political purposes.”
The complaint was made by a former SNP member, who stated: “Mr Yousaf is no longer Justice Secretary.
“Therefore evidently Mr Yousaf should not have access to departmental papers, minutes of meetings, exchanges between him and Ministers responsible to him or any other records from his time as Justice Secretary.
“Further, Mr Yousaf should not have retained records that are pertinent to the role of Justice Secretary when he ceased to be the Justice Secretary.
“Mr Yousaf has used these Government records as a means to advance his candidacy in the SNP leadership contest.”
The complainer requested that Nicola Sturgeon, who is responsible for ruling on breaches of the ministerial code, not be involved in the probe and said: “As the current First Minister will shortly resign from office, added to members of her Government openly supporting Mr Yousaf in his bid in the SNP leadership contest, it is apparent to any reasonable person that the First Minister has a conflict of interest in carrying out her enforcement responsibilities in this instance.”
However the Scottish Government confirmed to the Sunday Mail that the complaint had been dealt with after just three days, and Sturgeon had cleared her Health Secretary of wrongdoing.
A spokeswoman said: “Mr Yousaf has confirmed that the wording highlighted was a turn of phrase used in the thrust of the leadership election debate and should be taken in that context.
“No civil servants or special advisers were tasked with searching government records.
“As such, the First Minister has concluded there is no breach of the Ministerial Code.”
Scottish Labour deputy Jackie Baillie said: “This is a serious allegation. It is not appropriate for the First Minister to simply sweep the complaint under the carpet.
“For years, the SNP government has been secretive and lacked transparency. They have shown a disregard for the rules and guidelines that underpin our parliament - this cannot go on.”
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: “It is increasingly clear that Nicola Sturgeon is pulling the strings behind the scenes, despite saying she would not be involved in the bitter battle to choose her successor.
“As for Humza Yousaf, the people of Scotland would be better served if he focused as much attention on Scotland’s crisis-ridden NHS as he is on undermining his rivals in the SNP leadership race.”
A spokesman for Yousaf said: “This is nonsense. There is no breach of the code.”
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