Alex Salmond's appeal for money to fight sexual harassment claims closed after reaching double its target

Former first minister receives £100,000 in donations in four days – but political opponents say he is ‘dragging Scotland into gutter’

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Alex Salmond’s controversial crowdfunding appeal to pay for legal action challenging the Scottish government’s handling of sexual misconduct complaints against him has closed after raising double its £50,000 target.

The former SNP leader and Scottish first minister is seeking a judicial review of the way the complaints have been handled.

He denies the allegations – which are still under investigation – and has described them as “patently ridiculous”.

But his way of fundraising for his legal challenge has been heavily criticised by opposition parties and commentators. They have suggested it may have been carried out to intimidate the complainants and questioned whether such a high profile and combative campaign could make victims of sexual harassment less likely to come forward in future.

The appeal was closed on Saturday – just four days after it was launched – having topped out at £100,007.

Mr Salmond said: “Many thanks to the thousands of people who have come forward with support. We will now press on with the challenge to the lawfulness of the procedure. All funds will be used exclusively to support the judicial review.”

He said that any surplus would be passed “to good causes in Scotland and beyond”.

The two complaints against Mr Salmond – who served at both Holyrood and Westminster during a distinguished three-decade political career – were made in January.

They date back to December 2013 when he was still first minister, and are reported to have been made by a Scottish government staff member: she alleges Mr Salmond touched her bottom and breasts through her clothing while she was alone with him at his official residence, Bute House, in Edinburgh.

Mr Salmond was informed of the allegations in March but they were only made public by Mr Salmond himself on 23 August after Scotland’s top civil servant said he was considering publishing details of the investigation.

On Wednesday, the 63-year-old quit the SNP and launched his crowdfunding appeal.

Following his target being reached, lawyers at the firm Levy and McRae were instructed to launch a petition for a judicial review in the Court of Session, which has now been done. It contends the Scottish government’s procedures for investigating harassment complaints against current and former ministers are unfair and unlawful.

The Scottish government, in turn, has pledged to “vigorously defend” itself saying there are “a number of inaccuracies in Mr Salmond’s public statements”.

When the crowdfunding page was closed it had raised £100,007 from 4,146 supporters – with people giving an average donation of just over £24.

Many of those who left messages said they donated as they believed Mr Salmond was innocent, with some suggesting he had been targeted because of his support for independence.

But critics have come from across the political spectrum.

A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: “Alex Salmond should never have been squeezing cash out of SNP supporters.

“His legal action has nothing to do with independence, yet he used the cause to convince the party faithful to cough up.

“It was crass and certainly not becoming of a former first minister of Scotland.”

Rhoda Grant, the women’s spokesperson for Scottish Labour, said Mr Salmond was “dragging Scotland into the gutter”.

She said: “That an independently wealthy man with his celebrity and political power is to raise legal fees through a crowdfunder for a case ultimately linked to sexual harassment is unbelievable.

“It suggests that he is sending a signal to those who have made allegations that he has the upper hand.”

Meanwhile current first minister Nicola Sturgeon has refused to comment directly but said on Friday that she wanted to see a “Scotland where there is equality before the law, where there’s not one rule for the powerful and another rule for everyone else”.