Nicola Sturgeon has spoken of a conversation she had with Alex Salmond’s former chief-of-staff Geogg Aberdain on 29 March, 2018.

“What I recall more strongly about the conversation was how worried Geoff seemed to be about Alex’s welfare and state of mind, which as a friend concerned me. He also said he thought Alex might be considering resigning his party membership,” she told the committee.

Ms Sturgeon added that these factors led her to agree to meet him and these factors made the 2 April meeting “firmly in the personal and party space.”

She told the committee she wished her memory of the meeting on 29 March was “more vivid”.

Scotland’s first minister has said she will always be “deeply regretful” about mistakes made by her government in its investigation of Alex Salmond.

Nicola Sturgeon said she “will always feel bad” for the two women who were let down and the taxpayers’ money that was lost.

Nicola Sturgeon has insisted that a meeting on 2 April with her predecessor Alex Salmond was “firmly in the personal and party space”.

Mr Salmond had earlier said there was “no doubt” that it concerned the Scottish government’s investigation of him.

She told the committee: “When he arrived at my house he was insistent he speak to me entirely privately, away from his former chief of staff Geoff Aberdein and Duncan Hamilton, who had accompanied him, and my chief of staff who was with me.

“That would have seemed unnecessary had there already been a shared understanding on the part of all of us.”

Nicola Sturgeon has said she has “searched my soul on all of this many, many times over” as she began her evidence to the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints.

Ms Sturgeon said she accepted that a “very serious mistake” was made when investigating the complaints against Mr Salmond.

As a result she said “two women were failed and tax payers’ money was lost, I deeply regret that.”

The first minister said: “Although I was not aware of the error at the time I am the head of the Scottish government so I want to take this opportunity to say sorry to the two women involved and to the wider public.”

Nicola Sturgeon has insisted it was “absolutely right” that the Scottish government investigated complaints made against her predecessor, former first minister Alex Salmond.

She said the “spotlight shone on historic workplace harassment in late 2017 was long overdue”.

And she said at that point it was “absolutely right at that time for my government to review its processes, consider any weaknesses and gaps in them and put in place a procedure that would allow complaints, including those of an historic nature, to be investigated”.

Ms Sturgeon told the committee investigating the Scottish government’s botched handling of harassment allegations made against the former first minister: “When complaints were made about Alex Salmond it was also absolutely right that the government took them seriously and subjected them to investigation.

“An individual’s profile, status or connections should not result in complaints of this nature being ignored or swept under the carpet. That in this case it was a former first minister does not change that.”

Nicola Sturgeon has appeared before Holyrood’s Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints.

For the next few hours, she will face tough questions about her government’s handling of complaints made against her predecessor Alex Salmond.

Scottish deputy first minister John Swinney said Nicola Sturgeon has not mentioned resigning.

This comes after the Scottish Conservatives called on her to leave her position over the government’s mishandling of complaints made against Alex Salmond.

Mr Swinney told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland: “Let’s let the inquiries take their course and lets make judgments in the light of those inquiries.”

Pointing to the example of home secretary Priti Patel, he added that breaches of ministerial code did not always result in resignations.

Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, said he was confident Nicola Sturgeon will “exonerated” after appearing before the Holyrood inquiry.

Speaking shortly ahead of her appearance, Mr Blackford told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday: “She is a woman of integrity and honesty and I fully expect that at the end of this process, and we are very close to that, that the first minister will be exonerated and in particular will be exonerated by the standards commissioner.”

For those who missed it earlier this week, here’s Sean O’Grady’s analysis of the Sturgeon-Salmond saga.

He looks at Ms Sturgeon’s political rise and the implications of her potential fall.