HOLYROOD'S harassment complaints committee have now been handed Whatsapp messages from the Crown Office that Alex Salmond has claimed proves there was a high level plot by Nicola Sturgeon's allies to ruin him and even send him to jail.

At the end of his oral evidence to MSPs, the former First Minister suggested if the MSPs could not get the information from the Crown Office they could seek a court order and force his lawyer to hand over the material.

However, today a spokesperson for the Scottish Parliament told The National that the committee has now been supplied with the communications and that it would examine them tomorrow. 

He went on to say the committee would also consider at the meeting whether it had received the Scottish Government's legal advice to the judicial review brought by Salmond that it needed.

"The committee has received communications in a release of information from the Crown Office and will consider it for a second time tomorrow," he said.

“The committee will also discuss whether members have sufficient legal advice from the Scottish Government tomorrow at their meeting in the morning.”

In his written evidence, published by the committee, Salmond did not use the word “conspiracy” but said he was “very clear” that there was evidence which supported “a deliberate, prolonged, malicious and concerted effort amongst a range of individuals within the Scottish Government and the SNP to damage my reputation, even to the extent of having me imprisoned”.

He added: “That includes, for the avoidance of doubt, Peter Murrell (chief executive), Ian McCann (compliance officer) and Sue Ruddick (chief operating officer) of the SNP together with Liz Lloyd, the First Minister’s chief of staff.

“There are others who, for legal reasons, I am not allowed to name.”

He said in his written submission that the “most obvious and compelling evidence” was contained in material that the Crown Office refused to release.

He said: “That decision is frankly disgraceful. Refusing to allow the committee to see that material both denies me the opportunity to put the full truth before the committee and the public and makes it impossible for the committee to complete its task on a full sight of the relevant material.

“The only beneficiaries of that decision to withhold evidence are those involved in conduct designed to damage (and indeed imprison) me.”

During the oral hearing, Salmond built a case which he believed showed suppression of evidence by the authorities.

He said the Crown Office told Kenny MacAskill last July there were no messages from Murrell – who is married to the First Minister – pressuring the police to investigate him.

Murrell later admitted sending texts to colleagues which appeared to show him urging colleagues to go to the police.

MacAskill has said he was sent the messages anonymously and had passed them to prosecutors and the Holyrood inquiry.

The messages appear to show Murrell backing prosecution action against Salmond in January 2019, the month the former minister won a civil legal battle against the Scottish Government and was separately charged with multiple counts of sexual assault, for which he was later acquitted on all charges after a trial last year.

Salmond pointed to other messages including one from the Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans to senior civil servant Barbara Allison – which said “battle maybe lost but not the war” – on the day the judicial review was lost by the Government.

“In my opinion there has been behaviour which is about, not just pressurising the police like the one you’ve read out, but pressuring witnesses, collusion over witnesses,” Salmond told MSPs during six hours of oral evidence.

The First Minister has repeatedly denied there was a conspiracy against Salmond.

MSPs are at the final stages of their inquiry into the Scottish Government’s investigation into complaints made against Salmond, which a judicial review found was unlawful, unfair and “tainted by apparent bias”.