THE SNP members on the Holyrood's harassment inquiry have launched a blistering attack on the opposition MSPs on the committee accusing them of “the politics of desperation”.

In a joint statement, Alasdair Allan, Maureen Watt and Stuart McMillan hit out at the conclusions reached by the other members and said leaks had taken place "selectively" to advance a “political” agenda.

A series of leaks have taken place over the last 24 hours which have dominated newspaper and TV headlines.

Last night Sky News reported that the inquiry had found that the First Minister had misled parliament.

It reported that by five votes to four, MSPs said Nicola Sturgeon's evidence was "an inaccurate account of what happened and she has misled the committee on this matter".

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon's office blasts new inquiry leak as 'baseless assertion and smear'

A new leak today said the probe concluded that it is "hard to believe" she did not know of concerns about the former first minister's behaviour before November 2017, as she has claimed.

The three SNP MSPs on the committee went on the offensive tonight.

"This committee was meant to carry out a dispassionate search for the truth," they said.

"But, at the very last minute, without full consideration of the evidence, the opposition railroaded through their prejudged assertions based purely on political considerations.

"On the question of the First Minister offering to intervene, there are two sides of the story and we have evidence from both sides, but opposition MSPs chose not to reflect that by selectively referencing only the evidence which supported their preconceived narrative."

They added: "We have also heard clear, consistent evidence that the First Minister had no knowledge of concerns of inappropriate sexual behaviour by Alex Salmond before November 2017.

"Yet, without a shred of evidence to the contrary, the opposition simply used their majority on the committee to insert 11th-hour predetermined political assertions that have no basis in fact. That is simply disgraceful and wrong.

"For the opposition, this was never about the truth. It was never about the evidence and, shamefully, it was never even about the women. All of these are being sacrificed in pursuit of political ends.

"This is the politics of desperation by the opposition members."

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They added: "We the above members release this joint statement to address issues raised by the leaking of information – in blatant contravention of the MSP code - relating to the unfinished and unpublished report from the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints.

"We have previously refused to give a running commentary on the Committee’s work but media speculation has compelled us to comment solely on accounts recently placed in the public domain and we will not comment further until the full report is published."

The Holyrood committee was set up to find out how the Scottish Government had mishandled an investigation after two civil servants made complaints about Salmond when he was first minister.

READ MORE: Patrick Harvie says Salmond inquiry 'destroyed credibility of report' with leak

Under legal challenge from Salmond in 2019, the Scottish Government conceded its investigation was unlawful because it was “procedurally unfair” and “tainted by apparent bias”.

Salmond was last year acquitted in the High Court in Edinburgh of all 13 of the sexual offences charges against him.