ALEX Salmond has come under fire from all sides at Holyrood over his links with media mogul Rupert Murdoch and American tycoon Donald Trump.
He was accused yesterday of being a "sucker" with an "infatuation for rich men", a "latter-day Arthur Daley", the "defender in chief" of Mr Murdoch, and failing to take a stand against a "rich American windbag".
Mr Salmond hit back, saying the accusations were "humbug and hypocrisy".
The attacks on Mr Salmond came during a rowdy First Minister's Questions, following a day when he had been accused by Mr Trump of false promises, and lavished with praise by Mr Murdoch.
Labour leader Johann Lamont led the broadside after Mr Salmond was accused of offering to lobby UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Mr Murdoch's behalf, and Mr Murdoch told the Leveson Inquiry of their "warm" relationship.
Ms Lamont said the First Minister had claimed his meetings with NewsCorp chairman Mr Murdoch were about jobs, but she believed "he just likes rich men".
She added: "Some say the First Minister has been devious, conniving, double dealing. Isn't he just trying to cover up the fact a rich man has played him for a fool again? Is it not the case he's no statesman, just a sucker?"
Mr Salmond told MSPs that his meetings with Rupert Murdoch concerned jobs. He said BSkyB employed more than 6000 people in Scotland, but "major job losses" were threatened last year when the company reduced the number of its contractors from nine to two.
"That carried with it the risk of major job losses in Scotland unless Scotland won the contracts," he said.
He added he was "delighted" that HEROtsc had won the major contract, with the company bringing up to 900 jobs to Glasgow.
However, Ms Lamont said his argument that his dealings with Mr Murdoch were in support of jobs in Scotland was "less of a reason, more of an alibi".
Mr Salmond met the News Corp chairman when he visited Scotland earlier this year, and the First Minister then wrote an article for the first edition of The Sun on Sunday.
Ms Lamont said: "The revelation that Rupert Murdoch's newspaper hacked Milly Dowler's phone was the moment that any doubt about Rupert Murdoch was removed; it was the moment his empire started to fall.
"His newspapers might be being investigated for bribery, perverting the course of justice, destroying evidence and perjury, but Rupert is still welcome at wee Eck's house, and he writes an article in the launch of his newspaper saying it wasn't just News International, it's all of the newspaper industry."
LibDem leader Willie Rennie also questioned the First Minister's relationship with Mr Murdoch, accusing him of putting "his own political motives above those of the phone-hacking victims".
For the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson compared Mr Salmond to Arthur Daley, the unscrupulous salesman from the TV comedy Minder, over claims he had offered to get obstacles to Mr Trump's multi-million-pound golf resort in Aberdeenshire "sorted".
Mr Salmond hit back, portraying Mr Trump as comic-book enforcer Judge Dredd, whose catchphrase "I am the law" echoed Mr Trump's insistence "I am the evidence" that wind farms will do "tremendous damage" to Scottish tourism.
Green Party co-leader Patrick Harvie said Mr Trump's vociferous objection to the wind farm off his Aberdeenshire golf course was an opportunity to remove him from the 'Global-Scot' network by taking "a proper stand against a rich American windbag" but Mr Salmond had "ducked it".
Mr Salmond's spokesman said: "There is a point of dis-agreement between us and Mr Trump, but I don't think it would send out the right signal or serve any purpose to say that to be a GlobalScot you have to agree with the government of the day on every issue."
l Mr Salmond declined to appear on BBC TV's Question Time last night because of a family bereavement. His spokesman said the invitation had never been confirmed.
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