Swinney will always put SNP above country, says Sarwar

John Swinney will always put the SNP before the country, Anas Sarwar has claimed.

The Scottish Labour leader was speaking at a press conference in Glasgow on Monday, setting out his party’s plans for reforming transparency in government if he becomes first minister after May’s election.

Mr Sarwar pledged to release what he called the “Salmond files”, a tranche of documents the Government is currently fighting in court not to release.

The information comes from the James Hamilton inquiry into potential breaches of the ministerial code by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon in relation to the Holyrood probe into the handling of harassment complaints against Alex Salmond.

The Government announced it would appeal the decision of the Information Commissioner to release some of the files over fears is could identify the complainers in Mr Salmond’s criminal trial – where he was cleared of more than a dozen sexual offences.

Contributing to the identification of the complainers would result in a contempt of court, but the Information Commissioner has said not releasing the files as ordered could also do so.

Speaking at the press conference, Mr Sarwar accused the First Minister of trying to hide information which would be damaging for his party.

“John Swinney will always put the SNP first and the people of Scotland second,” he said.

The Labour leader also accused the Government of “secrecy” and trying to “hide the truth” in relation to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, where the health board have admitted a “causal connection” between the condition of the hospital and infections which led to deaths.

Mr Sarwar added: “The serious and devastating consequences of an SNP obsession to protect itself above anything else, to waste public money and to hide the truth, frankly, is dangerous, and shows why we can’t risk a third decade of the SNP.”

If Labour wins the election in May, Mr Sarwar said, he would order the Information Commissioner to: conduct a review of the Government’s freedom of information (FOI) practice; introduce parliamentary privilege at Holyrood; strengthen the powers of parliamentary committees to compel evidence and witnesses to appear; and reform the Ministerial Code so the Government will only be able to take legal action if there is a stateable case and such action is in the public interest.

On the decision to appeal the release of the files related to the Hamilton inquiry, a Scottish Government spokesperson said on Sunday: “The Scottish Government has lodged an appeal with the Court of Session challenging the Scottish Information Commissioner’s decision on a freedom of information request for evidence submitted to the Hamilton investigation.

“We consider that the commissioner erred in relation to the law on whether the information can be withheld because it risks breaching contempt of court orders.

“The Scottish Government cannot release information which would amount to a contempt of court.

“It would otherwise not be appropriate to comment on what is now live litigation.”