THE BBC's Scotland editor has apologised for a news report saying Alex Salmond called for Nicola Sturgeon to resign.

Sarah Smith said sorry on Twitter after making the statement on the six o'clock news.

In the clip, which was widely shared on social media, she says: "He [Salmond] believes Nicola Sturgeon has misled Parliament and broken the ministerial code which he thinks means she should resign."

Video credit: David Patterson Jr (@DavidPSNP)

When asked by Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser if Nicola Sturgeon should resign if she is found to have broken the ministerial code, Salmond said: "Not for me. I believe the First Minister has broken the ministerial code but it is a finding that can be discussed, at least by this committee, by Mr James Hamilton. It's not the case that every minister who breaks the ministerial code resigns, your party [the Tories] had an example of that very recently, it depends what is found."

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Smith said: "On the 6 o’clock news headline tonight I said that Alex Salmond had claimed the First Minister had ‘broken the ministerial code and that he thinks she should resign’. I would like to clarify that Mr Salmond did not say that the First Minister should resign.

"He said 'I've got no doubt that Nicola has broken the ministerial code but it’s not for me to suggest what the consequences should be.'"


The Scottish Government refused to comment on the matter.

At the time of writing, the BBC had not responded to The National's request for comment.

However on Twitter the BBC News Press Team wrote: "On the Six O’Clock news headline tonight we said that Alex Salmond had claimed the First Minister had ‘broken the ministerial code and that he thinks she should resign'. We would like to clarify that Mr Salmond did not say that the First Minister should resign. (1/2)

"He said “I've got no doubt that Nicola has broken the ministerial code but it’s not for me to suggest what the consequences should be” (2/2)."

A spokesperson on BBC News said: "On the 6 o’clock news headline tonight we said that Alex Salmond had claimed the First Minister had ‘broken the ministerial code and that he thinks she should resign’.

"We would like to clarify that Mr Salmond did not say that the First Minister should resign. He said “I've got no doubt that Nicola has broken the ministerial code but it’s not for me to suggest what the consequences should be."

The inquiry follows a turbulent week in Holyrood. Salmond was due to appear before the committee on Wednesday but pulled out after the Crown Office redacted parts of his submission.

The former First Minister argued there has been a “calculated and deliberate suppression of key evidence” to the committee.

He also said it was the Scottish Government which had been “found to have acted unlawfully"