Nicola Sturgeon faces pivotal week with Alex Salmond reports due – The Guardian, 19/03/21

Nicola Sturgeon is facing a critical week, with the expected publication of two crucial reports into her role in her government’s handling of sexual harassment allegations made against Alex Salmond.

In the balance is not only Sturgeon’s future as Scotland’s leader if she is found to have breached the ministerial code – a resignation matter – but the fate of her party in the forthcoming Holyrood elections and its capacity to push for a second independence referendum should it gain a majority.

The feud between Sturgeon and Salmond – her predecessor, former friend and mentor – reached another crisis point in recent days. Leaks from a special Holyrood committee revealed its inquiry had concluded, by a narrow majority along party lines, that Sturgeon misled it by giving an “inaccurate” account of her meetings with Salmond in 2018, albeit unknowingly.