Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has said Nicola Sturgeon should not resign after she was found to have "misled" a Holyrood committee over the Government's unlawful probe into Alex Salmond.
The Health Secretary insisted the First Minister did not mislead Parliament and mounted a defence of her professionalism.
A Holyrood Committee has been investigating the SNP Government’s mis-handling of sexual misconduct complaints against Salmond when he was First Minister.
Salmond pursued a judicial review and it was agreed the Government probe, which destroyed his friendship with Sturgeon, had been unlawful.
The Inquiry is set to publish its findings within days, but some of the conclusions have been leaked.
An important issue for the Inquiry centres on meetings between Salmond and Sturgeon in the middle of the 2018 misconduct probe, and what was discussed.
They first met at Sturgeon’s house on April 2nd of that year, but their accounts of what was said at this meeting differed in evidence to the Inquiry.
In his oral evidence, Salmond said Sturgeon had offered to intervene in the process. His lawyer confirmed this account, but the First Minister disputed it.
The Committee concluded: “Her written evidence is therefore an inaccurate account of what happened and she has misled the Committee on this matter. This is a potential breach of the Ministerial Code under the terms of section 1.3c.”
Sturgeon is expected to face a vote of no confidence next week.
Asked about the Committee's conclusions at the daily covid briefing, Freeman said: "I do not believe the First Minister should resign. I do not believe she has misled Parliament, and I have absolute confidence in her veracity of what she said in those eights hours of evidence to that committee, in her integrity and in her professionalism."
Asked who would take over if the First Minister resigned, Freeman said she had "no expectation" this would happen, but noted that Sturgeon has a deputy.
She also said it was "not the case" Sturgeon was damaged goods.
Sturgeon said last night: "I stand by all of the evidence I gave to the committee, all eight hours' worth of evidence."
"What's been clear is that opposition members of this committee made their minds up about me before I uttered a single word of evidence, their public comments have made that clear.
"So this leak from the committee - very partisan leak - tonight before they've finalised the report is not that surprising."
A separate investigation into whether Sturgeon breached the Ministerial Code, conducted by lawyer James Hamilton, is expected to report soon.
