The latest development in a row between Scotland’s top policeman and the justice secretary exposes a police force in crisis, the Scottish Conservatives have said.
Chief constable Phil Gormley is currently on leave following allegations of bullying, and justice secretary Michael Matheson recently intervened to prevent him returning to work.
Now, Mr Gormley’s wife – herself a retired police officer - has blasted the SNP government, saying he has been “vilified” in a “disproportionate fishing expedition”.
She even suggested her husband was unpopular with the SNP because he was English.
The move intensifies the pressure on Mr Matheson, who was yesterday defended by Nicola Sturgeon at First Minister’s Questions.
She said he’d acted “entirely appropriately”.
Incredibly, the First Minister went on to say opposition parties were only raising the row between Mr Matheson and Mr Gormley as a “diversion” to Brexit.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said:
“Nicola Sturgeon claimed yesterday that genuine concerns about Police Scotland were simply a diversion. Today's revelations show what a blunder that was.
“The truth is that the SNP has allowed the governance of policing in Scotland to plunge into crisis on its watch.
“And whatever confidence remained has now been cast into doubt by today’s testimony from Claire Gormley, herself a former high ranking police officer.
“Seven months after the first allegation against her husband, Mrs Gormley says the chief constable has not yet been interviewed by the body conducting the investigation.
“She also claims that others in the force have not yet come forward to provide any evidence to the authorities.
“If this is all true, we have to ask what is going on? Why has the Scotland’s police force been left without its chief for months and months, without basic enquiries having been made?
“Nicola Sturgeon cannot hide any longer. There are legitimate and growing questions surrounding the SNP’s entire handling of this fiasco.
“Why did the SNP government hush up its involvement in the decision to prevent Mr Gormley returning to work?
“Why was no record taken of the justice secretary's meeting with police chiefs over the matter? What do the nationalists have to hide?
“It is time the SNP stopped trying to keep secrets from the public and confront this mess head on.”