A top level investigation has been demanded into the First Minster’s behaviour after claims he “sneaked” into a school during by-election campaigning.
Aberdeen City Council has instructed its chief executive to write to Sir Peter Housden, permanent secretary to the Scottish Government, over Alex Salmond’s “professional conduct” in the run-up to the Donside contest.
One specific bone of contention is the First Minister’s unannounced visit to closure-threatened Bramble Brae Primary, where it is claimed he spoke to a class without notifying either the head teacher or the local authority’s director of education of his arrival.
It is claimed Mr Salmond used a back door to enter the school after an SNP -supporting parent council member asked, via a classroom assistant, for an unsuspecting teacher to invite him in.
The council’s letter also accuses the First Minister of ignoring purdah rules because a £100,000 Scottish Government donation to the Piper Alpha Memorial Trust was announced then personally welcomed by Mr Salmond just days before voters in Aberdeen went to the polls.
Scottish Conservative North East MSP Alex Johnstone said: “It is quite staggering that Scotland’s First Minister thought it appropriate to sneak into a primary school through a back door without the permission of the head teacher.
“This was a major misjudgment on Alex Salmond’s part and there has to be an immediate investigation by the Permanent Secretary into his conduct.
“School security is in place for very good reasons. bYet, Alex Salmond showed nothing but complete arrogance when he sloped his way into this school in his desperation to make a political point.”
A spokesman for the First Minister said the donation was nothing to do with the by-election and to make a political issue of it showed “a quite staggering degree of insensitivity.”
He said: “The visit to primary six pupils at Bramble Brae, as has previously been pointed out, followed an impromptu invitation and was a totally private event with no media in attendance.
“What is beyond any doubt is that the threat by the Tory-Labour administration to close Bramble Brae and Middelton Park schools was very much part of the by-election campaign, and it is entirely legitimate that parents and campaigners fighting to keep them open should voice their views.
“The fact Labour and the Tories would rather silence them is reprehensible and undemocratic and shows they have learned nothing from their by-election defeat.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The Scottish Government will of course consider any points that are put to it by Aberdeen City Council.”