Creative Scotland was right to be uneasy about how the Scottish Government intervened in a controversial case of arts funding last year, it has been claimed.

It was revealed yesterday that staff and board members of Scotland's national arts body felt "undermined" by former First Minister Alex Salmond's unprecedented intervention into arts funding, in a series of emails obtained using the Freedom of Information act.

Last year, in a controversial decision, Creative Scotland decided that Scottish Youth Theatre (SYT) would not be one of its three-year funded arts bodies.

It led to a storm of criticism and, within a fortnight, a surprise £1m package for the theatre, and other youth arts bodies, it was announced by Mr Salmond in his main farewell speech as First Minister.

Creative Scotland, like other Non Departmental Public Bodies (NDPB), operates at "arms length" from government.

Claire Baker MSP, Scottish Labour's Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Culture, said: "Whilst many people will be pleased that the Scottish Youth Theatre eventually received funding, Creative Scotland are right to raise questions around the way this was secured.

"There needs to be fairness and equity in the funding process and Creative Scotland were set up by the Scottish Government to deliver this.

"If the Scottish Government are now going over their heads with funding decisions it does raise questions over whether the Government still have confidence in this organisation."

The email messages show the intervention was viewed as compromising and undermining the quango's independent decisions.

One says: "This clearly has implications for our credibility as a non-governmental public body."

Another from Iain Munro, deputy chief executive, warns that if an offered £1m is not also shared with other youth bodies "it undermines the entire Regular Funding process and Creative Scotland's status as an arms length NDPB."

Board member Ruth Wishart writes: "I assumed that the collective decision finally taken would be just that. Final.

"I watched the FM's speech on iPayer [sic] last night and clearly, on the basis of his personal experience, he chose to give NYT favoured status and therefore second guess the CS process.

"As a result I find myself in the paradoxical position of being relieved that a solution has been found for NYT...while being simultaneously uneasy that there has been direct political intervention of a kind explicitly excluded by our terms of reference."

She adds: "This clearly has implications for our credibility as a non governmental public body."