The Scottish Government has flatly denied claims that Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth accidentally sent an email containing a list of staff she was unhappy with to an entire government department.
The story, which has been circulating in political circles, suggests that Gilruth mistakenly fired off a message that was never meant to be seen by the wider team. But government officials have come out swinging against the claim, insisting the whole thing simply did not happen.
“There is no email,” a Scottish Government spokesperson said, shutting down the story in about as direct a way as you can.
Gilruth, who took on the role of Deputy First Minister under John Swinney, has been one of the more prominent faces of the current SNP administration. She previously served as Education Secretary, a role that put her under significant scrutiny over teacher shortages, curriculum reform and the ongoing fallout from the SQA shake-up. Moving into the deputy role brought her even further into the spotlight.
The bullying claim, if true, would have been a serious embarrassment for the Scottish Government at a time when workplace culture in public institutions has come under growing scrutiny. Accusations of bullying within government and public sector workplaces have made headlines repeatedly in recent years, and any suggestion that a senior minister was keeping a list of problematic staff would have raised serious questions.
But the government is not entertaining the story at all. Rather than offering a nuanced response or promising to look into the matter, officials went straight for a flat denial, which suggests they are confident the claim has no foundation.
Opposition politicians are likely to keep pushing on the issue regardless. At Holyrood, any whiff of internal dysfunction within the SNP tends to attract sustained attention from Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, all of whom are keen to paint the current administration as chaotic ahead of the next Scottish Parliament election.
The SNP has faced a difficult period internally over the past couple of years. The resignation of Nicola Sturgeon, the brief and turbulent leadership of Humza Yousaf, and the return of John Swinney as a steadying hand have all played out very publicly. The party is still working to convince voters that it has moved past that turbulence and is focused on governing.
Gilruth herself has not made any public comment on the claims so far. The denial has come through official Scottish Government channels rather than directly from her office, which is fairly standard practice when ministers are dealing with what they consider to be baseless allegations.
For now, the Scottish Government is standing firm. Whether more details emerge to either support or further undermine the original claim remains to be seen, but as things stand, ministers are treating this as a non-story and moving on.