UK Justice Secretary Robert Buckland has said the inquiry into the handling of claims of sexual harassment against former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond was a "distraction".

Buckland told Sky News: "The priorities of the people of Scotland are fighting the virus and trying to live with it, and get back to normal along with the rest of the United Kingdom.

"I think they will be at best puzzled and at worst dismayed by this constant intrigue coming against the background of an obsessive mission by the SNP to call another independence or separation referendum.

"I am afraid it is showing a political establishment in Edinburgh that is increasingly out of touch with the reality of day-to-day life."

Speaking at Holyrood today, Salmond rejected calls from his successor Nicola Sturgeon that he should provide evidence to back up his claims of a conspiracy.

READ MORE: LIVE: Alex Salmond gives evidence under oath to Scottish Parliament committee

He stressed it was the Scottish Government who had been "found to have acted unlawfully, unfairly and tainted by apparent bias" by the Court of Session.

He said: "I note that the First Minister asserts I have to prove a case, I don't. That has already been done. There have been two court cases, two judges, one jury.

"In this inquiry it is the Scottish Government, a government which has already admitted to behaving unlawfully, who are under examination."

Salmond is today giving evidence to MSPs and has claimed his ability to give evidence has been "severely hampered" by the Crown Office.

The former first minister pointed to two orders which restricted what could be said in front of the Holyrood committee.

He said: "The application of these provisions and threat of prosecution made to me if I offered that evidence is, in my estimation, both extraordinary and unwarranted."

The former first minister told the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints: "This inquiry is not about me, I have already established the illegality of the actions of the Scottish Government in the Court of Session, and I have been acquitted of all criminal charges by a jury in the highest court in the land.

"These are both the highest courts in the land, the highest criminal court and the highest civil court.

"The remit of this inquiry is about the actions of others, whose investigation into the conduct of ministers, the Permanent Secretary, civil servants and special advisers.

"It also requires to shine a light on the activities of the Crown Office."

He went on to claim that the committee in its inquiry had been "systematically deprived of the evidence it has legitimately sought".