Nicola Sturgeon says she still counts shamed Derek Mackay as a friend

The former first minister recounted the downfall of her ex-finance secretary in her memoir Frankly, which is released this week.

Mr Mackay dramatically resigned in February 2020, on the eve of delivering the Scottish Budget, over messages sent to a 16-year-old boy.

He admitted he had "behaved foolishly" by sending hundreds of social media messages, which were published in the Scottish Sun.

Mr Mackay was never seen in Holyrood again, but clung on as an MSP until the May 2021 election and continued to take a full salary.

Writing in her memoir, Ms Sturgeon said the allegations “came out of the blue”, adding: “I went into a bit of denial initially, thinking it couldn’t possibly be true.”

She recalled going to see Mr Mackay in his office, where she found him “chalk-white and almost totally uncommunicative”.

She continued: “Eventually, he told me that he had been in contact with a young man some time ago, but he didn’t think he was as young as 16, and he couldn’t recall anything in the messages being inappropriate. His responses, which seemed vague to me, combined with his demeanour, shook me out of my denial.

“Immediately, I felt in my gut that we were dealing with something serious which, politically, Derek would not survive. Even so, I still felt I needed to see the detail of the allegation before telling him to resign.

“However cagily and unconvincingly, Derek was, after all, denying the pertinent points. It was still possible that The Sun was embellishing the story.”

When The Sun’s story went online, Ms Sturgeon said she “felt sick” reading it, adding: “The messages were published in full and were not open to benign interpretation. They would be seen by any objective reader as Derek trying to engineer reasons to meet with the boy and to strike up a relationship with him.

“Given the age different and the power imbalance, it was impossible to describe the exchanges as anything other than inappropriate. I had received and accepted Derek’s resignation within the hour.”

The former first minister said the next couple of days were “incredibly tough”. Mr Mackay’s resignation had been unavoidable, she said, but “politicians are human beings”.

Ms Sturgeon wrote: “The feelings of shock and upset were palpable. For me and my ministerial team, Derek had been a friend as well as a colleague. However, he had made a serious mistake and, rightly, paid the price.

“He eventually got his life back on track and, though it would be a few years before I spoke to him again, I still count him as a friend.”

Mr Mackay has since set up his own consultancy firm. His downfall led to calls for a new law that would allow MSPs to be removed from office.

He was replaced as finance secretary by Kate Forbes, who delivered the Scottish Budget to Holyrood with just hours’ notice.

A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: “The disgraceful messages that Derek Mackay sent were not only an abuse of power, but they were predatory.

“Derek Mackay could have stepped down after these revelations were reported, but shamefully chose to stay on at the taxpayers’ expense for more than a year afterwards.

“Eyebrows will be raised by Nicola Sturgeon’s comments that she still considers Derek Mackay to be a friend in the wake of his sleazy legacy.”